


Firecracker

by Rogue21



Category: Borderlands (Video Games)
Genre: Action, Borderlands: Borderlands 2, F/M, M/M, Pandora - Freeform, Romance, Sexual Content, Sirens
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-04-11
Updated: 2019-06-19
Packaged: 2020-01-11 18:25:58
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 17
Words: 25,346
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18429641
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rogue21/pseuds/Rogue21
Summary: The Vault Hunters getting away are one nuisance but Blaze still existing is infuriating. For three years Handsome Jack has dealt with botched shipments, raids, and his henchmen and minions getting slaughtered by a girl who seems to be more unhinged than him. When the Goon Squad are nearby, he’s losing money. His people aren’t up to the task so it seems that Jack will have to deal with the firecracker himself.





	1. The Goon Squad

Up on the watchtower near to the fort in the Three Horns Divide, Blaze sat perched next to the poor bastard she had shot in the head. Inside the fort Handsome Jack was meeting with ‘business’ associates, the perfect to time to try and weaken his defences and take out the competition. They were the only bandits that should be controlling the three horns. Down on the ground her crew the Goon Squad, consisting of seven other members named Stretch, Slim, Fly, Scope, Bratz, Clover and Gasoline, had set up six cages each with a Bullymong inside that they had caught the day before.

 

“Blaze to Stretch, how are we looking?” she asked Stretch on the two-way radio.

 

“All good down here boss, Fly says the meeting is wrapping up which means we are set to take out these morons and remind Jack who really owns the Three Horns Divide, how’s your position?” Stretch asked back.

 

“Pretty good Stretch, Jack’s minion up here had some sweet loot, got a new watch and goggles.” Blaze replied.

 

“Alright Fly’s heading over, let’s get into position boys,” Stretch ordered. Blaze sat with her legs dangling off the watchtower, the zip line was ready and she watched through her binoculars as the large metal doors opened and Handsome Jack walked out with his entourage and the Bandit Leader she had dubbed ‘Shit-For-Brains’. She watched as Jack saw the crates and turned to Shit-For-Brains and demand an explanation.

 

“Goon Squad this is Blaze saying: Release the Bullymongs,” she called into the radio. Instantly all cages opened and the six Bullymongs ran at the bandits and Jack’s entourage. Bullets started flying as her gang scarpered back to their vehicles. Jack had managed to grab two of his minions to act as human meat shields.

 

“Party’s yours to crash now Blaze, just get out of there alive,” her other crew member Scope said as Blaze put her binoculars away and stood up. The last Bullymong got put down as she zip lined down to the yard and superhero landed in front of Jack.

 

“This attack was brought to you by Satan’s Suckhole. Satan’s Suckhole where what goes down never comes back up,” she said with a friendly smile as four guns got pointed at her.

 

“Well if it isn’t the pain in my ass that never seems to go away, serving yourself up straight I see,” Jack said unimpressed.

 

“Actually I wanted to give you a friendly reminder that the Goon Squad owns the Three Horns Divide and you might want to start running.”

 

“And why would I do that?” Jack asked her. A flash of purple streaked across Blaze’s eyes as her grin widened and she shouted at the top of her lungs.

 

“OH STEEEEEEVAAAAANN!”

 

There was a rumble as a giant Bullymong leapt into the fort and started tearing up the place.

 

“Try getting out of this one alive Handsome, hahahahahahaha,” Blaze shouted as she activated the spring board mechanisms hidden under her boots and launched herself into the air and over the wall. She landed with a heavy on the ground outside and darted towards her vehicle.

 

“Let’s roll Goonies,” she shouted, her maniacal laugh echoing in the air. The cars sped off racing down the broken roads as Bullymongs and Skags chased alongside their cars until they came to a stop at a large cave with a Catch-A-Ride outside for their vehicles and metal sheets blocking the entrance as a door.

 

“Did you see the look on his face, now he knows not to come near our territory,” Blaze said as she leapt out of the vehicle and went to open up the door to their lair.

 

“What is the deal with you and Jack, he rolls into town and you start plotting to sabotage him?” Scope asked her.

 

“Jack and I have a…complicated relationship, he wants me dead because I might have botched his attempt to kill a couple Vault Hunters a few years ago, once I realised the fun I could have with this, he has found me to be the pain in his ass that never quits,” Blaze replied. Slim, a large boisterous man who had goggles and a beanie on, laughed and slapped her on the shoulder as they walked into their lair, which was a mess, but it was their home.

 

“Taking you in was the best decision the Captain ever made, rest in peace buddy,” Slim said and kissed his fingers in a sign of respect. Blaze nodded in respect and kissed her fingers as well.

 

“We miss you buddy, all the more reason to remind Jack who really owns the Three Horns Divide, I know those Bloodshits keep trying to move in on our turf but if we don’t control this region, Sanctuary has no protection on this side of the door,” she told the team.. Fly laughed and climbed into his bunk to relax.

 

“Bloodshits, I like it.” Blaze returned to her own bunk to record the events in her journal and opened to the drawing of the Vault she had found when she first met Jack. She laughed and started writing down the events with the Bullymongs and the fort they were currently working on taking down. “Yo Stretch, how many Adult Bullymongs got away before we finally caught one.” She shouted over to Stretch who had started cooking.

 

“Seven, we wiped out that whole nest before we caught Steven as you named it,” Stretch informed her.

 

“Thanks Stretch.” She started writing and shortly after started to feel a pounding in her head.

  
“Oh not again, Slim!” she called out as she dropped the pen and clutched at her head. Slim quickly jogged to her bunk and grabbed a strange syringe from the bedside table and gripped her arm.

 

“Hold still,” he ordered as he jammed the syringe into her arm and pushed in the purple liquid. There was a flash of purple over Blaze’s eyes as the pounding in her head stopped and she breathed out.

 

“Thanks Slim, how long should this one last?” she asked him.

 

“Hopefully a couple of days, you need to go to Sanctuary and talk to Tannis if it’s getting worse,” he advised her.

  
“I might head there tomorrow, I don’t get it Slim I’m not a Siren so why do I go nuts when I don’t have Eridium in my system?” Blaze asked.

 

“You ever think that Vault you found has something to do with it?” Fly asked her.

 

“I try not to think about that Vault, it’s because of that Vault and the Vault Hunters Jack went after that I get these headaches and blackouts, at least now the Eridium solves it for a short while, what worrying is how these weekly shots have started becoming daily,” Blaze replied.

 

“You overexerted yourself today catching and controlling those Bullymongs, rest up and tomorrow take your car over to Sanctuary and get yourself looked at,” Slim said and went back to his workbench. Blaze closed her journal and laid back on her bunk. This weird ability was fun but it was getting harder to control, if there was another Siren around maybe she could get some perspective but with no Sirens nearby to help as Lilith was in hiding, help could be given in the form of Tannis and Dr. Zed, and he didn’t have a medical licence.


	2. Explosive Surprise

Blaze slept uneasily in the night and in the morning did not look her best. As she tied up her auburn hair into her messy ponytail, she could see Fly in the mirrors reflection carelessly tossing a live grenade to Clover and back.

“Put that thing away before you kill us all,” she ordered to Fly who caught the grenade and disabled it. Bratz laughed as she threw another dart at the picture of Handsome Jack on the wall which had many holes in it from constant dart throwing.

“You got in trouble,” she said mockingly.

“Don’t think you’re getting off easy, I need you to go visit Tiny Tina with Stretch and deliver the box of grenades she requested,” Blaze said. Bratz stopped laughing and growled and stood up to get ready. “I’m off to visit Tannis at Sanctuary get an answer to this problem, while I’m gone Slim is in charge of you all if any Hyperion minions come nearby, you know what to do.” Blaze grabbed her goggles and the keys to her bandit car and headed out of the lair. The day was very dry and the Happy Pig Motel was open for business. Several Bloodshot gang members had set up a camp across from the motel near one of the other pumps. She stopped at the motel and hit up the ammo machine to buy some more pistol ammo, she looked over at the Bloodshots who all seemed to be waiting for something. She finished buying up and climbed into her bandit car, she gave them all a scrutinising look as they all just stood there watching.

“What do you losers looking at?” she hollered over to them. None of them responded and merely watched her. “Creepy sons of bitches,” she muttered and started up the car and drove off to Sanctuary.

 

* * *

 

The same thing happened again with the Bloodshots that sat outside of Sanctuary’s door. They all just stared at her and waited, something was up with them that they were being oddly quiet. She parked the car outside and walked through the gate into Sanctuary, the Shields were up as Hyperion were firing upon them again. She headed over to Tannis who was in the middle of another Eridium experiment with Roland watching. 

“I can’t concentrate with you watching me Roland,” Tannis said as she glared at him.

“I’m just curious to see what you come up with,” he replied.

“Then go be curious somewhere else!” Blaze watched them bicker before rapping the table with her knuckles.

“Hey Tannis, you got a minute?” she asked.

“Ah Blaze, what brings you to Sanctuary, I thought the Bloodshots had you too busy to visit,” Tannis answered as she stopped her experiment.

“I had another purple spell yesterday, Slim administered the last shot but who knows how long it will take for, I’ve used the six months’ supply you gave me in six weeks,” Blaze told her. Tannis immediately went to her medical bag and pulled out a syringe.

“Sit down there, Roland get her a cookie and an energy drink,” she ordered. Blaze sat down at the chair Tannis was pointing at as Roland went to the “kitchen” to get the sugary snacks. Tannis walked over and jammed the syringe into Blaze’s arm and attached it to a drip and an empty blood pack. “This will take a few minutes, I need a good pint at least to conduct some tests, I can make one shot now but it will need to be a powerful dosage to make it last a few days, so give me time for that.”

“If Lilith were around I’d bring you to her, you don’t have the mark of a Siren but you sure act like one,” Roland commented handing her the cookie and energy drink.

“Sirens can’t control wild creatures, I managed to catch and control six small Bullymongs and one adult Bullymong, it was hard work but I managed it, Handsome Jack didn’t know what hit him, this was the first time he saw my ability in action.”

“You ran into Handsome Jack, what was he doing on the ground?” Roland asked her.

“Meeting with Bloodshots at the stronghold near Satan’s Suckhole,” she replied.

“Why him, what’s he planning that he needed to be on the ground instead of safe in Hyperion Headquarters?”

“Who knows, he and I have crossed plenty of times so this was nothing new,” Blaze said as Tannis removed the syringe and drip and bandaged her arm.

“Eat and drink up I’ll be back shortly,” Tannis ordered and went to work her magic with her small lab. Blaze obeyed and ate the cookie as Roland started to pace.

“There was something though, at the Happy Pig Motel and as I was parking at the catch-a-ride, all these Bloodshots were just…staring at me, most Bloodshots when they see my Goon Squad insignia just start shooting but they all just stared at me,” she told Roland. Roland gave her a puzzling look.

“They just stared?” he asked her. She nodded in reply. “That’s strange, you think they were planning something?”

“Maybe, but if they were they’d be shooting first,” she said to him. There were several minutes of silence as Blaze pondered why the Bloodshots were being so calm and not trigger-happy. Tannis arrived back after half an hour with an epi-pen filled with liquid Eridium.

“This should stabilize your ability for a while but I had a quick look at your bloodwork and it is…I need more time, this isn’t Siren powers but it’s dangerously close to it, I shall call you in a few days with the results, for now hold onto that shot and take when you feel another purple spell coming on,” Tannis told her handing her the epi-pen. Blaze took it and stashed it away in her bag, grateful for Tannis and Roland’s help.

 

* * *

 

Outside of Sanctuary Blaze prepped her bandit car at the catch-a-ride with Scooter on call to help fix the turret.

“This sure looks like it needs a few upgrades, you should go and visit Ellie in the Dust when you get a chance, I’m sure she could give you something,” Scooter told her.

“Thanks Scooter, there are some Bloodshots that need to learn a lesson, this should get the lesson across,” Blaze replied as she started up the car.

  
“No problem Blazie, tell Ellie I said hi when you meet her,” Scooter said and cut out. Blaze started up the car and drove down towards the Happy Pig Motel, as she drove near she saw more Bloodshots this time at the motel all watching her, as she slowed down she started to hear a beeping which started to get louder and more erratic, she stopped the car as the beeping got faster and she saw underneath the dashboard a bomb. Panicked she climbed out of the seat onto the hood and as she spring boarded off the car, it exploded sending her flying into the air and hitting the ground hard. She rolled over a couple times before she came to a stop and saw someone looking down at her. 

“That was too easy,” the muffled voice said as she fell unconscious.


	3. A Bad Idea

Blaze was unsure how long she had been unconscious, the only thing she was sure of was that she was upside down in a very clean looking prison cell, chained up by her feet and her wrists tied together hanging down so she couldn’t try to escape.

“Oh no,” she said seeing her predicament, her ECHO HUD and weapons were gone and her bag with her Eridium shot. “Oh this is not good at all.” The door then opened as she saw Handsome Jack enter.

  
“Wait outside please,” he said to his guards who shut the door. “Oh that was so easy, I’ve been hiring morons to try and capture you when all I had to do was get a call that you had gone to Sanctuary, teleport down and plant a bomb in your car all the while disguised as a Bloodshot bandit, your first mistake was going alone and your second mistake was not killing all the weirdly quiet bandits just watching you, too easy if I say so,” Jack monologue as he walked towards her, one hand behind his back. Blaze glared at him and swung her body to try and hit him, but he dodged and the chain started turning her around.

“You ego-centric bastard, where’s my bag?” she demanded. Jack laughed and revealed her bag he had been holding.

“You mean the one I’m holding right here, see I got curious and decided to see what was in the bag and I found the mo- would you stop spinning around so I can monologue here!” Jack demanded. Blaze glared at him as she tried to face him as she turned.

“Do I look I’m doing this on purpose?” she asked him.

“I found the most curious thing,” he continued. “An allergy shot filled with liquid Eridium, what you some kind of weird purple junkie, you ain’t a Siren that’s for damn sure.”

“Why I shoot up Eridium is none of your damn business, but if I start complaining about a headache and you don’t stab that shot into my arm or chest, you’ll be wishing that Bullymong I set loose on you was still around, by the way how did you escape Steven’s clutches?” Blaze asked as she tried to stop the spinning.

“I have my ways, I was thinking I could kill you right now and be done with your antics but I figured I might keep you here strapped up like a submissive little-,” Jack started before she lunged at him and managed to grab his collar her restrained hands.

  
“Finish that sentence and I will rip this cheap rag you call a suit,” she threatened him. Jack only laughed and pried her fingers off him.

“This ain’t cheap honey, I’ll be back later to pry that little Eridium secret out of you and when I do, I hope you’ll be smart and tell me the truth or I’ll have to get out the tongs,” he told her and walked away with her bag. He shut the door and Blaze sighed and hung there. She was screwed, trapped in Hyperion headquarters, no idea of the time or date, no weapons and Jack had her Eridium shot and if she got another purple headache, she could easily kill someone. She had to get out somehow, maybe Jack would give her back her stuff if she tried to gain his trust, but how?

“How do you gain the trust of a mad man?” she wondered. She could play dumb but that only worked on raiders. She could play into that ego of his, call him handsome, and maybe go deeper than that. “Oh no I am not going there,” she said when she realised what she was suggesting to herself, seduce Handsome Jack, oh that was a bad idea.

“I am not shagging that egomaniac,” she muttered to herself. If she did that Slim would never let her hear the end of that and Bratz and Gasoline would want details. “Am I really going to have to go there?” she asked herself. The silence spoke volumes and she sighed.

“No one ever knows about this and if he announces it over an ECHO I’ll kill him,” she told herself as she looked up at herself. Bit hard to seduce Jack looking scruffy, her skin tight trousers were ripped up, her boots went up to her knees and her top was falling to pieces anyway, large holes and rips from various gunshots, stinging trees and Bullymong encounters. She reached up to one of the rips which was close to her collar and pulled it apart further to reveal some form of cleavage.

  
“Well it’s the best I can do in this situation…I don’t know who’s going to respond to me,” she said realising that it was pointless thinking out loud with no one to respond. She looked at her binds and saw they had bound her wrists with rope but her feet were tied with chains. She smirked and used her strength to pull herself up the chain to hold on and try to saw through the rope binds with the chain. Blaze heard the door opening and dropped back down swinging slightly as Handsome Jack walked in, this time without her bag.

“I said I’d be back later and here I am, I know when I’m walking on Pandora dirt you can’t seem to stay away,” he said walking up and noticing the smile on her face. “Why is your face like that?” he asked her. That wiped the smile clean off her face and she scowled.

  
“I was going to be a nice and make a passing remark about that tight ass of yours but now you don’t get to hear it,” she said and turned away from him.

  
“Are you trying to be nice so I’ll let you down, I’m enjoying watching that already red head of yours turn redder,” he said as he looked at her. Blaze pulled herself up to grab the chain so she could look at him right side up. 

“And now you don’t get to hear my thoughts on the rest of you, nope, you can go fuck yourself which you probably do anyway, you’re that self-absorbed,” she said as she let go of the chain and fell back down to her hanging position. “Fuck me this is uncomfortable, you couldn’t have strapped me up the other way.”

“No I like this better,” Jack said to her. She had to gain his trust, perhaps the first step was telling him what the shot was for.

“You want to know what that liquid Eridium is for?” she asked him.

  
“I do indeed, are you going to spill?”

“If I tell you, will you let me down please?” she replied. She could see Jack thinking occasionally smiling and pausing whatever he was about to start saying. Finally he nodded.

  
“Because you asked nicely, I will let you down after you tell me what the shot is for?” he said to her. Blaze sighed and attempted to point the scar that could be seen running down her collarbone through the tears.

  
“You remember when I botched your Vault job three years ago and let those Vault Hunters get away, well whatever was in that vault fucked me up figuratively and literally, somehow I got the ability to control creatures, which is why you always get attacked by Bullymongs when you’re on the ground, the shots are to keep me stable because I might have killed a whole gang of raiders after going berserk, I literally saw purple and when I regained my senses I was drenched in blood, lately I’ve been taking the shots daily because the spells are getting worse and Tannis is currently researching it, that’s why I was at Sanctuary, she took a whole pint of blood and that shot is a powerful enough dosage to keep me sane until she figures out what’s going on,” she explained to him. Jack’s eyes looked glossed over, had he even been listening?

“Motherfucker have you zoned out?” she snapped at him.

  
“No that was just an incredibly boring way of saying you take Eridium to settle whatever Demon it is that lives inside of you, but I liked the part about the blood, I do love a good blood drenching,” Jack replied.

  
“Can you let me down now?”

“Sure thing sweetie pie, you can’t leave of course but you still can move about and get exercise, let me just do one thing,” he replied and snapped his fingers for a Hyperion Robot to let her down. The robot cut the chain and she dropped to the ground with a heavy thud.

  
“Fuck,” she muttered.

  
“Well I have a meeting to get to but I’ll come by later and maybe see about a little torture,” Jack said walking towards the door.

“Well so long as I can see that tight ass of yours again, I shan’t complain,” Blaze said. This caused Jack to stop for a second and turn to her as she attempted to sit up.

“Well aren’t you sweet,” he said with slight sarcasm and shut the door. Blaze sighed and lay back down on the cold floor which felt welcoming. This was a bad idea but it had gotten her out of that chained up position, now all she had to do was get back down to Pandora.


	4. Purple Haze

Blaze was unsure how much time had passed being Jack’s prisoner and that worried her, she needed that dose of Eridium before she had another uncontrollable attack. For now she had to sit and wait with the hopes that Jack would have a moment of sanity and give her the shot back. She sat in the cell legs up against the wall, back flat on the floor thinking about the next phase of her plan. She was hungry and thirsty as well which didn’t help matters. The door opened and she watched to see Jack enter, no bag in hand.

“Need something?” she asked.  
“I see you’re using your limited freedom well, my meeting was frightfully dull and I thought torturing you would be more fun,” he replied revealing a set of pliers and shutting the door.

“Your suit is torture enough, seriously that is a loud shirt,” she said sitting up properly and leaning against the wall.

“A gift from the board, I might burn it later or put it on Butt Stallion, now what you liked broken fingers or toes, I’m feeling toes,” Jack said. Blaze stood up and walked towards Jack with a smile.

“How about I-,” she stopped the pounding had started again in her head.

“Is there an end to that sentence?” he asked her. Blaze’s eyes flashed purple as she backed away from him and up to the wall.

“Not now, not now, you better not have gotten rid of my shot, because I need it now!” she said.

“Stop being dramatic you’re fi-,” that was the last thing Blaze heard before a purple haze fell over her and the world vanished around her.

 

* * *

 

Everything was bright, too bright. Blaze’s eyes adjusted as she looked around. Jack was kneeling over her, the empty shot in his hand. She sat up confused and saw a large crack over his mask and piece broken off around the right eye.

“What happened?”

“You went psycho baby, flipped out, check out the chaos you made,” he said. She looked around and saw that the clean white cell now had slag-like stains and scorch marks. “I must say I was a little turned on when you punched me, but I had to make a run to get your medicine and when I came back you had destroyed both my robots I had ordered to restrain you, I’ve never seen anyone who isn’t a Siren throw that kind of damage, I’m thinking I move you to the lab and see what’s going in that perky little physique of yours.”

“I ain’t a Siren Jack,” Blaze said. She noticed that near the corner of his right eye where the mask had broken off, a strange scarring going up, he hid a scar under that mask, how bad could it be? “Thank you for giving me the shot, I’d say that Purple Haze was torture enough and I feel drained so…until tomorrow?”

“And I thought we were going to have fun,” Jack said sarcastically. Blaze smirked and got up off the floor and dusted herself off.

“Oh we’ll have fun, just not now,” she told him. Jack pretended to look sad at pouted at her before smiling.

“I’ll be back…Blaze,” he said and left the room. As she watched him leave, she realised that was the first time he had actually used her name and not an adjective coupled with an obscenity.

 

* * *

 

 

In his office, Jack grimaced in the mirror at the damage done to his mask from Blaze’s strange attack. He’d have to get a new one grafted on and that was going to be another painful experience. He pressed a button on his desk to talk to his secretary.

“Bradley, you boring, boring assistant of mine, I need you to put in a call to that cosmetic surgeon Doctor Grange and tell I need to book an appointment ASAP, if you fail this you’re fired, oh and tell him it’s an emergency,” he said and let go of the button.

“Uh sure thing Handsome Jack,” Bradley replied anxiously. Jack sat in his seat and looked at the picture board on his wall of the Goon Squad. Each picture had a nickname attached to each one and Blaze’s read: B-Bomb. All had been planned to use whenever they failed to botch one of his shipments but none had been used at all, now that she was his prisoner on the station, it would be easier to get shipments and troops sent out without her gang interfering. He leaned forward and ripped her picture of the board. A very provocative photograph, he could tell she’d been hanging around Mad Moxxie by the way she was lying down on that crate with her back arched and her chest pushed out, one he liked to look at from time to time. He leaned back in his chair and thought about that ability she had used. Instead of phase blasting like Lilith does or phase locking people like Maya, she seemed to enhance her strength right before she punched him. A strong right hook.

“What are you Blaze?” he asked the photo. She had no tattoos like a Siren and yet she could manipulate creatures to do her bidding and packed a powerful sucker punch which knocked him flying into the wall causing the crack in his mask. She was something else entirely and it intrigued Jack, only Six Sirens could exist and if she was one or a more evolved form, he had hit the jackpot. But now he had to gain her trust, convince her to trust him and he had the key to getting that Vault open. He still had that guest room, but the last guest that stayed in it got a mean case of death by gunshots and some of the bloodstains still hadn’t come out.

“She’ll probably feel more at home,” Jack said to himself and put the picture down and pressed the button for Bradley.

“Bradley, summon me two security guards,” he ordered.

“Right away Handsome Jack, also I can’t reach Doctor Grange something about Bullymongs getting into his surgery,” Bradley replied.   
“Bradley what did I say if you failed this?” Jack reminded him.

“Please don’t fire me, I’ll keep trying to get a hold of Doctor Grange,” Bradley said with a panicked tone.

“Now that’s what I like to hear,” Jack replied. Two guards entered and Jack gave them a tranquiliser shot from his desk drawer.

“Take that Goon Squad leader and bring her to that guest room we have here, if she protests or gets difficult knock her out,” he told them. The guards left quickly and Jack leaned back in his chair and smiled, a smart plan.


	5. Leaderless

Slim paced nervously around Mad Moxxie’s as the rest of the Goon Squad sat nervously waiting for Lilith. Sir Hammerlock watched Slim pace and it was unsettling to watch.

“Pacing won’t help you know,” he told him.

“I don’t know what to do, we haven’t seen Blaze in twenty hours none of the respawn points have recorded her death and Tannis doesn’t know where she went after leaving Sanctuary,” Slim told him.

“I went out and checked the car wreckage found near the Happy Pig Motel and it was definitely hers, I found our insignia, the bandits were all cleared out there but they wouldn’t have attacked our vehicles,” Gasoline said. “Scooter is looking over the parts I sent him and Ellie has the shell.”

“What if the worst has happened?” Bratz suggested.

“What’s the worst thing that could happen?” Hammerlock asked.

“Handsome Jack got to her and killed her, fed her to the Bullymongs as revenge,” Bratz said.

“I could go out and rifle through Bullymong remains, I’d need you guys for protection of course but I don’t think it’s possible, not if she can control Bullymongs,” Hammerlock said.

“Well what could have happened, how could she vanish between Sanctuary and our lair?” Bratz said worriedly.

“Bratz cool it or you’ll give yourself another anxiety attack, when Lilith gets back we’ll formulate a plan, as defacto leader I can assure you that we’ll find Blaze,” Slim told them all.

“Excellent motivation Slim,” Hammerlock said excitedly. There was a sudden flash of purple as Lilith teleported into Mad Moxxie’s. “Ah Lilith, any news?”

“It’s the worst, Roland and I did some recon around Happy Pig and we confirmed the worst, Hyperion have Blaze, according to an audio log we found Jack disguised himself as a bandit and planted a bomb under her car while she was in Sanctuary and the car exploded when she got to the motel, he had her teleported within seconds, no one stopped him,” she said.

“It’s worse than I thought, if she’s in Hyperion headquarters there’s no way to get her back,” Hammerlock said.

“So we’re doomed then,” Bratz said sadly.

“No, this is Blaze we’re talking about she’ll get back to us, she’s basically a Siren,” Clover said.

“Blaze is a Siren?” Lilith said.

“Well no, but she has powers like one, she got messed up by a Vault three years ago that’s when she first ran into Jack, whatever happened to her she can do some crazy stuff, but she needs liquidised Eridium to keep her stable or she kind of goes on a rampage,” Scope said.

“She’s not fully activated her powers then, I was the same when I discovered my powers, I can handle them now but if Jack realises what she truly is, he’ll have a way to charge that vault key he found,” Lilith said.  
“We’re with you Lilith, whatever you need,” Slim said.

“I’m going to go out to the Dust and help Ellie with the car,” Gasoline said getting out her seat. “Clover can you check in with Scooter?”

“Sure thing.” Clover replied getting up as well.

“Alright then, Fly you and Bratz go and find Tiny Tina and tell her we need her help to sabotage the next troop dispatch,” Slim ordered.

“Right on Slim,” Bratz said as she and Fly headed out of the door.  
“Stretch, Scope and I will stay here for now and work with you and Roland,” Slim said.

“Good idea, I just hope Blaze can handle herself up on Hyperion,” Roland said. Slim hoped so too, Blaze was a tough girl, but she had never ventured into Hyperion territory alone, not without her Squad at least.

 

* * *

 

 

Up on Hyperion Blaze stood in the middle of the guest room staring at the large bloodstain on the wall. She was confused on why Jack had his security bring her here and why there were filled up bullet holes in the walls and faded bloodstains on the carpet.

“Someone left a bad review,” she said.

“I know, some people can be so insensitive,” she heard Jack say behind her as he approached her. She didn’t move as she felt Jack move up behind her and lean over her shoulder. “I call it: A Study In Crimson.”

“More like a lesson in manners,” she commented. “Why am I here again?”

“I thought this would be better than a cold cell, and I feel I should be nicer to the girl who ruined my face,” Jack said pointing to the damage. “You have any idea how much this is going to cost to fix?”

“A fair amount,” Blaze replied as she inched away from Jack. “But your attempts to bribe me with luxuries will fall short, all I need is the right moment and I will be fast traveling down to Sanctuary.”

“Yeah but you won’t do that,” Jack said.

“What makes you think that?” Blaze asked intrigued.

“A hunch, you’re right though, the door is right there, you can leave right now, I won’t stop you and neither will anyone else, go on,” Jack told her pointing to the door. Blaze looked at the door and back at Jack. This was a trick, a dirty trick, but it would be easier than sleeping with him to escape. She took one step towards the door and then stopped and walked towards the bed and sat down.

“Nah, I think I’ll stay here,” she said with a smile.

“You called my bluff, smart girl, well I have to go and get a new face, later I might have a job for you ciao,” Jack said and left the room.

“Ciao, really?” Blaze muttered after the door closed.

“Oh he’s not that bad,” a voice as the TV screen on the wall lit up and a face appeared. Blaze stared at the TV in confusion.

“Who are you?” she asked.

“My name is Angel I was…created by Jack, so to speak, if you want I’ll request to bring you an ECHO so we can talk better,” Angel offered.

“Could you get my original ECHO, I need to tell my friends I’m alive,” Blaze said.

“No problem Blaze,” Angel replied and vanished. Blaze lay back on the bed and looked around at the room and at A Study In Crimson. She then saw another door in the room. She got up off the bed and walked over and opened the door to see a pristine white bathroom with a large bathtub with Jacuzzi jets. Her eyes widened at the idea of hot water and soap and she went in and shut the door.

 

* * *

 

 

Hot water had never felt so good to Blaze as she sat in the bath the jets working their magic against her body.

“I see you found the Jacuzzi jets,” Angel commented appearing on the bathroom TV.

“If this is what Hyperion life is like, I’ll play prisoner for a few more days,” Blaze said.

“You should be getting your original ECHO back when Jack has returned, he currently has all your possessions locked away in a safe in his office,” Angel informed her.

“Why does he wear a mask Angel, how bad is that scar he’s hiding that he needs a mask?” Blaze asked.

“It’s not something Jack likes to talk about…or is proud of,” Angel told her with slightly sad tone.

“He must have been a catch back in his day, Moxxie told me she and him used to tangle in the bedsheets once upon a time, then again she was married to Marcus, and Scooter and Ellie are her kids…but I’d call her a mother figure, she was good to me, taught me how to handle a gun, how to hold myself up and that when in doubt, your body can be a dangerous weapon, it’s how I got I got my sniper rifle,” Blaze told her as scrubbed herself with a very soft sponge she had found.

“How did you get it?” Angel asked.

“There’s a gang of bandits out near Ellie’s garage, she wanted my help to get back at one of them because he’d never called her back, I asked her how and she said ‘seduce the bastard and steal his clothes’, so I did, the rifle was a part of his ensemble and after a few innuendos and an offer to share a very strong drink, we...well you know. After he had fallen asleep I got dressed, stole his clothes and rifle and immediately legged it back to Ellie, she hung his underpants up like a flag on her garage, they’re still there and I painted a little red heart on my rifle and named it ‘Looks’ because if looks could kill,” Blaze told her.

“Impressive…you know I don’t have many friends here, no one stays around long enough,” Angel said.

“I’ll be your friend, granted you’re a face on a TV but I used to hang with a Claptrap Unit before I met the Goon Squad, I hope they’re okay,” Blaze answered thinking about her crew, Bratz was only thirteen and was the sister she always wanted, how was she coping. The thought was then interrupted by her stomach growling. “I haven’t eaten in hours, how is the food up here?” she asked Angel.

“I’ll put in a request for some dinner to be sent to you,” Angel replied and vanished from the TV. Blaze smiled and got out of the bathtub and drained the water, she wrapped herself up in a nice warm fuzzy towel and looked for something clean to get into.


	6. The First Move

Blaze had managed to find some clothes that while being tight around the waist and chest she still managed to fit into.

“Clearly these were designed for a much smaller person,” she said as she flexed her left arm and ripped the sleeve. She shrugged and turned the long sleeved top into a short sleeve crop top. The trousers she couldn’t exactly rip, but it meant she would not be able to bend over with destroying the crotch entirely. A knock on the door took her attention and it was a Hyperion employee with a plate of food that had some form of potato in it.

“I’m told we have to feed the prisoner,” he told her before handing her the food and leaving.

“Well someone just lost a tip,” she called to the employee and shut the door.

“Jack insists you get some decent sustenance, the other prisoners don’t get this much preferential treatment,” Angel commented appearing again on the TV.

“The other prisoners probably don’t have Siren-like powers,” Blaze quipped and sat down.

“Yes I heard about this, Jack said you can control animals and you get this…layer of energy which you channelled into your fist and punched him hard enough to send him into the wall,” Angel said. This was news to Blaze.

“I did that, I know I broke his mask but I didn’t realise I punched him that hard,” she said.

“Jack has seen Siren powers but for you to do to have such abilities and display no mark of a Siren is strange.”

“I’ll say, it’s because of that vault, the Vault Hunters opened it up, Jack and I collided in the chaos and well it’s because of me that Jack got delayed in trying to kill them, he got attacked, I saved him and…the rest is history, once he had gotten away…that’s when the monster attacked me, I don’t know what happened but I woke up with a Claptrap Unit burying me in the snow,” Blaze explained.

“What were you doing there in the first place?” Angel enquired.

“I was following a lead from a journal I had found about the vault, I got there and saw it was open, I headed in and that’s when the chaos began, I don’t regret shooting the thing that had a hold of Jack I figured it was the right thing to do.”

“I think you did the right thing,” Angel agreed.

“It was when I met him the second time and he tried to kill me that I thought screw this egomaniac I saved his ass and he’s not even grateful, this food is great by the way,” Blaze said. Blaze and Angel chatted for the best of an hour and when the plate was empty, Blaze figured the next best thing was to get some sleep in a bed that didn’t have gross stains on the mattress. Angel turned the lighting off and vanished from the TV as Blaze settled down under the bedcovers and went to sleep. She missed her squad and hoped they were coping, even asking Angel if she could check in on them and see how they were. She knew that Jack wanted her kept here so he could see her powers in action, maybe even use her for some means to an end, she could accept that, but how long would she be willing to stay before she tried to go back home.

 

* * *

 

 

Jack returned with a fresh new face and saw the time, it was very late and most of the headquarters was getting ready for the night-shift, he wondered how Blaze was settling in and decided to pay her a visit. He walked to the guest room where a guard was stationed to wait.

“Go!” Jack ordered to the guard. The guard, who was half-asleep anyway, quickly up and left leaving Jack to open the door and peek in. She was sound asleep in the bed, he smiled, a creeping thought urging him to get closer and see how she looked sleeping.

“Do you watch all your prisoners sleep?” he heard Blaze ask him.

“Only the pretty ones,” he answered hitting the switch and shutting the door behind him. Blaze sat up in bed as Jack leaned against the door, he had a new mask which looked exactly like the previous one.

“Nice face, who made it?” she asked.

“A good doctor, prices are awful though,” Jack answered. Blaze chuckled, this seemed a good time to start her plan.

“I like it, better than your last face,” she said and climbed out of the bed covers and sat on the covers. She was only her underclothes a black crop vest and tight shorts, but it got his attention. “So what brings the elusive Handsome Jack to his prisoner’s cell?” she asked him.

“I got curious, wanted to see if you were still here,” he said.

“And here I am.”  
“Yes so now I’ll be going.”  
“But you just got here, I want to get a better look at that new face,” she said beckoning him. Jack smirked, he could see this ploy to seduce him, but she was attractive and if anything playing into it would be to his advantage. He walked towards her and stopped at the edge of the bed.

“What do you think, for twenty thousand I think it looks great,” he said with a smile. Blaze chuckled and kneeled on the bed so she was at equal height with him.

“Indeed,” she said. Up close and not trying to kill her, he really was handsome. She reached up and caressed his cheek with her hand. “The elusive Handsome Jack, the name almost doesn’t do you justice.”

“Baby you got to experience it to understand it,” he said hoping she’d take the offer, Blaze chuckled and slowly moved her hand to the back of his neck and pulled him closer to her.

“So let me understand it,” she whispered. Jack smiled at her eagerness.

“With pleasure,” he said and kissed her. Her lips were warm to touch and surprisingly sweet, he liked it a lot. He pulled her towards him, his arm wrapped tightly around her waist. Blaze was eager, too eager in her mind but it was working, he had fallen for her ploy, now she wondered if she should just go to the whole mile and sleep with him now or drag it out, make him desperate and begging for her. That idea sounded better to her, she kissed him with force then pulled away to catch her breath.

“I think I understand it now,” she said with a smile. “The elusive Handsome Jack, I like it.”  
“If you like that, I’m sure I can find something you’ll absolutely love,” Jack said. “But I have somewhere to be, enjoy the room,” he said and let her go. He quickly turned and walked to the door, opened it and left. Blaze sat there on the bed.

“Clever boy,” she muttered, he could have taken her right then if he wanted to, but he didn’t. She was playing him for a means to escape and he was playing, what for she wasn’t sure, but they both had an endgame in mind.

 

* * *

 

 

Outside of the room, Jack leaned against the door. Hot and bothered by her successful attempt at seducing him.

“That girl is good,” he said and returned to his own personal room.

Inside his room he stripped down and got under the bedcovers. He wasn’t tired, not after being on a surgery table for six hours getting his new mask grafted on and now he was even more awake thanks to that kiss from Blaze.

“She is hot, a smart-ass and a pain to deal with on the ground, I want to fuck her but I also want to strangle that smug look off her face,” he said to himself as his own hand gripped at his erection. “I hate that smug, overconfident…sexy raider bitch.” He rubbed himself vigorously, imaging her pinned beneath him. How he’d like that, have her helpless, maybe with a gag over her mouth so he wouldn’t hear something sarcastic. But then she couldn’t moan his name, that sounded good. Her beneath him as he rode her, moaning his name over and over, breasts bouncing, face contorting, lip biting, hands restrained.

“Blaze,” he moaned as he came under the pristine bedsheet. “Fuck,” he said as he then realised that he had said her name loud enough for the guards outside to probably hear. No matter, whoever gave him an awkward stare in the morning would simply get executed. He settled down into his bed and fell into a quick sleep. He rolled over, his stained hand hanging over the bed. The headquarters was now quiet. Guards and Hyperion employees working the night shift did their jobs quietly.

 

* * *

 

 

In the guest room, Blaze struggled to sleep, the bed was comfy but that kiss with Jack lingered in her head, it was good and she had enjoyed it. It bothered her that the man she had been sabotaging for three years was on her mind in a different way, up close and personal in her head, imagining herself having sex with the crazed man.

“Stop it,” she muttered to herself as she turned over.

“Are you okay?” Angel asked appearing on the TV.

“Just having a crisis of faith nothing for you to worry about Angel,” she replied to the AI.

“Okay, it’s just that you seem tense,” Angel noted. Blaze turned to the TV and leaned on her pillow.

“I have sabotaged Jack’s work for three years after saving his sorry ass in that vault and I’m wondering if there’s a deeper layer to it, if it’s because I’m…attracted to the man and not because he needs to be taken down a peg,” Blaze said.

“I wouldn’t know I’m afraid, why do you think that?”

“Because I kissed him as a means to try and escape this ship.”

“How do you believe sleeping with Jack will help you escape?” Angel inquired

“It’ll lower his guard, I’m already one step closer, out of those chains and here, all I need is for him to give me an opportunity to use the fast travel network and gaining his trust will do that,” Blaze explained.

“I see…perhaps you should use this ‘plan’ of your to see if it is truly attraction or just a means to an end, if you find yourself in a position to cut and run or stay, then you’ll know if it’s one or the other,” Angel advised her.

“You’re a good friend Angel, thanks,” Blaze said and turned over to sleep.


	7. Lab Rat

The next morning Blaze was awake and changed into her original clothing that had been miraculously cleaned. She didn’t know who or how, but she wasn’t going to question that nice strawberry scent that was now surrounding her. As she laced up her boots, Handsome Jack burst through her door, a wide grin on his face and a look that seemed to suggest he had just killed someone.

“Good morning Sunshine!” he said with enthusiasm.

“Oh this is it Angel, I told you he was going to kill me,” Blaze said with fake fear before laughing.

“Oh I already killed someone on my way here, he’ll respawn in a couple of hours but now he knows not to eavesdrop on my special alone time,” Jack told her. “But we have a long day ahead of us, first I’m going to need you to voluntarily give me various pieces of DNA for the lab to study and then we’re going on a field trip to Pandora, first to the wildlife preserve and then to the Dust.” Blaze chuckled.

“So no time for breakfast?” she asked.

“I wish, let’s get a move on,” Jack ordered and pointed out the door. Blaze obeyed him as two guards were outside waiting. The both grabbed each of her arms and forced her down the hallway as Jack walked on ahead.

“I realise that while the Eridium mining and charging of the vault key will take a while, I have something else to occupy my time which is learning about Sirens, you emit obvious signs but lack the tattoos which is interesting, so we’re going to take blood samples, skin tissue, and we’re lucky perhaps a couple of eggs to see if it’s genetic and find out just what Sirens really are,” Jack told her.

“You want a kidney as well?” Blaze asked sarcastically.

“Mock me if you will but only six Sirens can exist at any point, so far I know of three, if you’re Siren number four, this could have some insight into why only six can exist.”

“Well at least you have a plan, mine was to let Tannis figure it out, crazy as she is, she took a pint of blood out of me before you captured me.” Jack didn’t speak back as he approached the lab and pushed the door open.

“Strap her down while I fetch the good doctor,” he said and went to find Doctor Barnaby. Blaze neglected to struggle as she got strapped down onto an operating table and the guards remained silently watching her.

“Well aren’t you two peachy,” she commented. Neither of the guards said anything as Jack returned with Doctor Barnaby.

“Alright four-eyes, here’s your specimen, be quick because I’m going to need her in about an hour, I’ll be back then,” Jack said and left with his two guards.

“So you’re the girl with the mysterious powers, I apologise for restraining you but this will hurt a bit,” Doctor Barnaby said as he got out a syringe.

“Just don’t take too much doc,” Blaze said. “So what’s the deal then, you take some DNA and see if there’s little purple dots in my genes or what?” Doctor Barnaby stuck the needle into her arm and began to withdraw blood.

“A little bloodwork and some DNA samples and at the request of Jack, your ova,” he said as he withdrew the syringe and put it down on a tray.

“My what?”

“Egg cells dear child, Jack wants to see if the cells contain any trace of Siren energy.”

“How are you going to take my eggs?” Blaze asked cautiously as the doctor then took a cotton swab.

“Open wide,” he said. Blaze obeyed as he swabbed her mouth then placed it down onto a petri dish. “This why we requested to Jack that we hold you for an hour, I’ll need Doctor Shelton to examine you and see if we can extract eggs now or if we’ll need to inject you with oestrogen to help release them.” Blaze rolled her eyes at the idea.

“I don’t trust doctor Zed to give me a gynaecological exam I ain’t trusting you guys to do it either,” Blaze said. He ignored her comment and pressed the intercom button on the wall.

“Doctor Shelton I need your assistance please,” Doctor Barnaby said.

“Right away Barnaby,” Doctor Shelton replied.

“She’ll only be a second, for now I’ll take these to the back to be examined,” Doctor Barnaby said. Blaze sighed and breathed out. At least Jack was taking her down to Pandora later on, perhaps that could be her ticket to escape, but she knew Jack would have something up his sleeve to prevent her from running like an exploding shock collar. Doctor Shelton arrived with Doctor Barnaby.

“Hi I’m Doctor Shelton, I will be examining you to see if we can extract some eggs from you, have you had a pelvic exam before?” Doctor Shelton asked.

“That depends on what you mean by exam,” Blaze said.

“I’ll take that as a no,” the Doctor replied and undid the straps and handed her a gown. “Change behind that curtain then sit back on here and prop your legs up.” Blaze felt confused by the request but her last pelvic exam had been done in Roland’s house on his table because she was worried she was pregnant one time and Tannis offered to ‘fix’ the problem. Luckily there was no problem to fix but it was still humiliating for Roland to walk in during the exam. She changed and got back down on the table and placed her legs in the stirrups that had been connected to the table.

“Alright, let’s begin this exam,” Doctor Shelton said and began to poke and prod Blaze.

“If the gang could see me now,” she muttered to herself.

* * *

  
It was an uncomfortable hour of sitting with two Doctors examining her and commenting on her ‘surprisingly healthy’ uterus and vagina. She felt insulted by the comment, as if being a bandit she would be riddled with STDs, and kept quiet.

“Well luckily you’re ovulating, we’ll just give you an oestrogen injection to boost the process and collect the eggs that release, fertile girl like you should have plenty,” Doctor Shelton commented as Doctor Barnaby prepared another injection.

“Once we administer the injection we’ll collect the eggs and you’ll be free to go,” he said to her.

“Great,” Blaze said sarcastically as Doctor Barnaby administered the injection. Another five minutes passed as Doctor Shelton finished the exam and placed on the tray next to her a petri dish of six egg cells.

“Six eggs, you might release a few more over the next couple of days, so refrain from sex for at least forty-eight hours,” she advised Blaze.

“Who’s going to have sex with me?” she asked sarcastically as she sat up and took her legs for the stirrups. She got off the table and got changed back into her clothes behind the curtain and returned to see Jack talking with Doctor Shelton.

“Six you say, good work, make sure you keep one viable,” he said before she walked away from him. “There’s my prisoner, I took the liberty of getting your things because we’re going to my wildlife preserve I’m going to need to see those powers of your in action against the fauna of this world.”

“Oh good, I get an invasive medical exam and to be a Skag chew toy in one day, you sure are spoiling me,” she said. Jack laughed and glared at her.

“Now you cut that out or I’ll kill you and feed you to the Stalkers,” he said enthusiastically. Blaze’s grin vanished knowing he was serious about that and saw he was holding her sniper rifle.

“Good you didn’t get rid of my guns,” she said as he handed her stuff to her.

“Well you’ll need them in the Dust,” he said as she put her bag on and slung her rifle over her shoulder. “Let’s go.”

 

* * *

 

Blaze and Jack took the fast travel network down to the preserve where Loader bots were working alongside engineers, the animals roamed about the enclosures as Jack took Blaze to the testing facility.

“Alright head into that room, I’ll be watching from the observation deck, turn on your ECHO and we’ll use that to chat,” Jack told her as he stepped into another room. Blaze walked into the large room which had five glass doors holding large badass creatures behind them.

“Alright Blaze-y-baby the first door will open, you’ll have fifteen seconds to try and kill the creature before the next door opens and the second creature comes out, this will continue until all creatures are in the room with you, I want to see those powers in action, if not the door stays locked and I’ll send in one of my own designs,” Jack told her.

“You’re the boss,” Blaze answered as she got out her bowie knife. No guns would be easy but her powers were still a wild card, she had just gotten the hang of controlling smaller creatures but nothing on the level of a badass. The first door opened up as a badass Stalker jumped into the room and ran at her. Blaze jumped back as purple energy wrapped itself around her arm and she spring boarded forward and punched the Stalker, breaking its shield. The Stalker hissed and fought back as she swiped at it with her knife, cutting it, then punching again with her left fist. It got pushed back into the wall and landed dead.

“Nice work and with only three seconds left until the next round,” Jack said as the next door started to open. A Skag was behind this one, an easier target for Blaze as she ran towards it and with both her fists slammed down on the head of the Skag and flattened it.

“Oh that was nasty!” Jack called out as Blaze grimaced at her bloodied fists. Blaze sighed and waited for the next door. Jack wanted to see her powers, then he would see her powers. The door lifted and a large badass Bullymong walked out. She grinned and with a flash in her eyes she had control of it, she glanced to the observation deck and commanded it to go and smash the screen. The Bullymong jumped up and grabbed onto the glass and started hitting.

“What are you doing?” Jack demanded as the glass cracked.

“That is my power Jack, it’s not enough to punch things, this is what the bulk of it is, that Bullymong is acting on my behalf, now open the final doors,” she told him. The doors opened as Spiderant King and a Wormhole Thresher entered the room. The Bullymong jumped down and started to violently attack them, all three monsters were engaged in a battle as Blaze commanded the Bullymong inside its head, when the Thresher was weakened and by her orders, the Bullymong picked up the Thresher and threw it towards the observation deck where it hit the glass and then dropped to the ground. The Spiderant exploded from a ferocious punch by the Bullymong leaving Blaze with it, she then took out her Sniper Rifle and aimed it between the eyes of the Bullymong and fired. The bullet hit the Bullymong and it died instantly. Blaze felt weakened slightly as she regained herself and looked up at Jack in the observation deck, his jaw was hanging in surprise, his hands pressed to the cracked glass.

“Are you satisfied?” she asked a little breathless.

“Very much so,” Jack whispered entranced by what had just transpired.


	8. Night Under The Stars

Jack had not seen such power in a long time, not even Lilith could do that. He left the deck and joined Blaze down in the room where she stood waiting for him. He walked in and saw the dead creatures and clapped his hands.

“Impressive B-Bomb, you really did a number on the first two but using that Bullymong to fight your battles for you, can you do that with people?” he asked her.

“No, I’ve tried in the past but it’s only creatures,” she replied. This was perfect, he could control the Warrior with her help.

“And now for our next adventure, we’re heading to the Dust to track down a son of a bitch named Gyro and kill him, he’s in that bandit camp near that fat chick’s garage,” Jack said.

“Okay one, Ellie is my friend so be nice and two, I know that camp, we can just stake out on a high rock surface and I can get him with my Sniper, be easier than running into the camp and risk getting shot at or mauled by a Goliath,” Blaze said.

“That sounds boring but if it means I don’t have to do too much work I’ll bite, let’s go,” Jack said and snapped his fingers to follow him. Blaze mockingly snapped her fingers behind his back and reluctantly followed, maybe she can crack his skull open with a rock in the Dust and leave him for dead.

* * *

 

Down in the Dust, the bandits were in full array as they arrived at the catch-a-ride near the entrance to the Highlands.

“Alright I know a good spot near the camp to set up a sniper spot but we’ll need a car to get there, lucky for me I have a Bandit car in the catch-a-ride system thanks to Ellie,” Blaze said and started tapping into the system to get her car.

“Oh good I get to be like you today,” Jack said before mimicking blowing his brains out.

“Lowly bandit scum yeah, now get into the gunner seat, I’m driving,” she said and climbed into the driver seat. Jack smirked and climbed into the gunner seat. A nice view and he had a gun in his hands.

“The bitch is back get her!” Blaze heard a bandit shout as another bandit car started to fire at them.

“Start shooting!” Blaze shouted as she put her foot down on the pedal as the car sped off into the Dust, Jack firing on the gun laughing manically.

“Woooo!” he shouted out as the bandit car exploded. Blaze found it amusing that Jack was enjoying being a gunner and drove towards the snipe spot. She had been to that spot before to stake out with Mordecai when he was looking for a friend who had gone missing and they had found him drunk on moonshine trying to pick a fight with a Spiderant. She drove up to the spot past Ellie’s garage and up the cliff ramp. She braked and stopped the car halfway up.

“Here we are,” she said and leapt out of the car. Jack leapt down, his hair slightly wild from the car ride.

“That was fun, can we do more of that?” he asked her.

“Maybe later, for now I’m going to set up, it’s going to be a while before we see Gyro, he and his buddies don’t normally hang around the place until the evening when they’re splitting shares,” she informed him as she set down her bag and got out her tripod stand for her Sniper.

“Well looks like we’re waiting then,” Jack said and sat down on the sandy rock. 

* * *

 

The day went by slowly as Blaze waited for Gyro to make his appearance, occasionally she would snipe the odd Bandit or Goliath to cause chaos and no one knew where it was coming from. When the evening arrived, the air was cool, the stars were coming into view and Gyro made his appearance.

“He’s here Jack,” Blaze said to Jack who was almost falling asleep from boredom.  
“Excellent, now blow his brains out, he needs to learn a lesson that you don’t steal from Handsome Jack,” Jack said shouting the last part down the cliff. Blaze aimed carefully and pulled the trigger. The bullet went straight through his head and he dropped to the ground, the other bandits started to look around panicking as they tried to find the source of the bullet. She took aim and fired at a gas tank which exploded taking out several bandits.

“Nicely done B-Bomb,” Jack said impressed by her aim.

“Why do you call me B-Bomb?” she asked him as she set her gun down and lay down to look up at the sky.

“I made up a load of nicknames for your little gang, never got to reason to use them because you beat me at every game, but I figure I can call you it now because you’re essentially my prisoner,” he told her and lay beside her.

“Right, prisoner in a large open desert where I could easily run and hide…the last time I was under a night like this was too long ago,” she said. Jack could feel a horrible sickly feeling in the pit of his stomach, an all too familiar feeling. He looked at her and turned to his side.

“When was the last time you were under a sky like this?” he asked her.

“Four years ago, I was young and in love with this guy, he lived out in the Dust and I liked to visit him, one time we spent all night under a sky much like this and talked, got to know each other, I thought it was the perfect relationship and then…I lost him to a group of crazy bandits who killed him and…” she stopped, remembering what those bastards did to his corpse.

“And what?”

“They had turned him into some bastardised Rakk for their ‘God’, I killed them all when I saw what they did, they were not human at that point, they were rabid Skags that had to be put down,” Blaze said. That was grim to hear even Jack could admit it was fucked up.

“That…I have no response to that,” he said surprised by the story. Blaze looked at Jack and thought to what Angel said, she moved closer to him and nudged him.

“What about you Jack, ever had a night like this?” she asked him.

“No…this is my first one,” he replied. They looked at each other for a brief moment before Jack leaned forward and kissed her, not with drive like the first one, it was softer, had a different feel behind it. He climbed over her, straddling her waist as she wrapped her arms around him. Damn it, Blaze thought to herself as she embraced the kiss, it was attraction, pure unadulterated attraction towards a mad man who set a group of people on fire purely for the fun of it. Like she was any better, dangling a Marauder into Satan’s Suckhole purely to watch the guy cry in front of his four lovers who were all sent into the Suckhole soon after. She pulled Jack closer to her, pushing her body against his, Doctor Shelton had warned her and she wasn’t going to ignore it, but she wanted to a little. She pulled back from him to catch her breath and smiled up at him.

“The elusive Handsome Jack,” she whispered.

“I love it when you say that,” he said chuckling. Blaze laughed and stopped when a sudden red dot appeared on his face. Seeing the dot she pulled him down as a sniper bullet flew over them and into the distance.

“What was that?” he asked as she pushed him off her and turned to see the bandits from the camp all grouped up with guns.

“Well shit, looks like Gyro’s goons found us,” she said and got to her feet. She slung her sniper over her shoulder and brought out her pistol. “Up for a little lesson in manners?”

“Hell yeah,” Jack said revealing his own revolver. Blaze took a few steps back, started to run and leapt off the cliff and into the camp. Jack watch her start tearing up the bandits with bullets and Eridium fuelled punches. He took a running jump off the cliff to join her and landed on a tin roof and aimed at the Goliath.  
“Lights out,” he shouted and fired. Its head popped off and it started to grow angry and begin to rage against the other bandits that were now trying to stop the raging Goliath. Blaze saw this opportunity to springboard into the air and shoot the nearby explosive barrel. It burst open killing the rest of the bandits but the Goliath was still alive. It ran to Blaze as she hit the ground and grabbed her by the throat, hoisting her up and squeezing tightly. Jack aimed again and emptied his revolver into the Goliath as it kept a grip onto Blaze who was powerless against its strength. She kicked frantically trying to escape its grip as suddenly stopped squeezing and let go of her. Blaze fell to the ground coughing as she tried to get the breath back into her lungs and saw Jack standing over the Goliath, holding a wrench coated in blood.

“What do you know it worked,” he said surprised by his own strength. Blaze sighed and put her hand to her throat.  
“Thanks for that,” she said in a raspy voice as Jack helped her up. She felt weak, tired and starving she hadn’t eaten all day. “As much as I hate to say it, I want to go back to Hyperion and-,” she said as her ECHO cut in and it was Scooter.

“Whooo-weee that was some fight there, Ellie said she saw you in the driving in the Dust and one of my catch-a-rides confirmed you summoning your car, oh hey Jack, JACK!” Scooter said as he realised that she was standing by Jack.

“Oh crap,” Blaze said.


	9. The Promise

“Hey Scooter…what the hell are you doing calling me up?” Blaze said awkwardly.

“I know you, you’re the crotch spawn Moxxie tried to convince me was mine,” Jack said recognising that slack-jawed tone.

“Ma’ did what now?” Ellie cut in.

“Oh good the fat one’s here too,” Jack said sarcastically.  
“Ellie, ignoring that I’m out here with Handsome Jack, what do you want?” Blaze asked her.

“Well I heard from Loggins, who was out spying on Gyro and his crew, that you’s were out on the cliff getting nasty with Handsome Jack, I said ‘whaat’ naw she ain’t and yet here you are, he snapped a photo if you want to see, ‘cause mmmm-hmmm get it girl, I asked Scooter if you’d used the catch-a-ride, he said you had, we heard some explosions and now here we all are like a family reunion, you want me to give Slim a call?”

“Why the hell did I ever date Moxxie?” Jack asked himself as he refilled the bullets in his revolver.  
“Tell Slim I’m alive and on Pandora but don’t tell him what I was doing out here or who I was doing it with,” Blaze said.

“That you were getting hot and heavy with the Hyperion President, secret’s safe with me girl,” Ellie said and cut off.

“So uh…are you coming to Sanctuary or not?” Scooter asked. Blaze looked at Jack and replied to Scooter:

“I’ll let you know Scooter.” And cut off communication. “So what, you going to take me back to Hyperion or leave me down here?” she asked him. Jack didn’t know what to do, he liked this girl too much to kill her now and didn’t want to just leave her and get called soft for letting a bandit go. He handed her his gun and said:

“Shoot me.”

“What?” Blaze asked confused.

“I took you down to the Dust to execute you, you resisted, got my gun and shot me with it, I teleported back to Hyperion after you ran away and I don’t know where you went,” he said. “Easier your friends believe you escaped me and lived than I let you go.” Blaze took the gun and held it in her hands and looked at Jack. She grabbed his collar and pulled him in for a final kiss, a strong one, one that she hoped would last for them both.

“This isn’t goodbye you hear me,” she said and took a step back, she fired a shot into his foot. Jack fell to the ground, trying not to curse through the pain as he watched Blaze start running out of the bandit camp and towards Ellie's garage.

“Angel sweetie, I’m coming to visit,” Jack said on his ECHO as he teleported away.

* * *

 

Safe inside a containment chamber, Jack appeared before Angel who floated in her isolation chamber.

“You let her go, why?” Angel asked him.

“It felt easier to do,” he said as he grabbed a healing shot and jabbed himself hard with it to heal the gunshot wound as he sat by her chamber. “She was the key Angel, the key to stabilising you, so you wouldn’t be locked up like this.”

“You still blame me for mom?” Angel asked.

“I never blamed you, I blame myself, I have what I need from her and we still have another…twenty-six days until the Vault Key is charged and we can open that Vault,” Jack told her.

“She said it’s not goodbye, do you think she’ll come find you…or me, I never told her what I am,” Angel said.

“If she does, better it’s her than any of those other guys, if Roland or Lilith got to you first…I don’t know what I’d do,” Jack replied. Oh he knew exactly what he’d do if Roland or Lilith got to his daughter first, he’d kill them both.

“You know Blaze wanted to use you to escape right?”

“I know, and she knew I was using her too, I guess she won this game too, I got what I needed from her though, Siren DNA, we’ll see how it works in the meantime,” he said and leaned back against the shield. “Angel.”

“Yes father?”

“I love you sweetie.”

* * *

 

Down in the Dust Blaze arrived at Ellie’s and walked in through the entrance.

“Well look at you, why the long face sugar?” Ellie asked her as she walked over to her friend.

“In a strange state of affairs, Jack let me go, I’m going to head back to Sanctuary everyone must be worried sick,” Blaze replied.  
“Why’d he let you go?”

“I don’t know, speaking of which where’s Loggins I want that photograph he took,” she said.

“I got it right here, you two looked like you were four seconds away from doing it,” Loggins said as he walked over and handed her the photo.

“I’m going to talk to Scooter as well, I don’t want word getting out that Jack and I almost, he’s the President of Hyperion and hates people like us and Roland would kill me for fraternising with the enemy,” she said taking the photo.

“Well good luck to ya, if I hear of any jobs I’ll give ya a call,” Ellie said.

“Sure thing Ellie, see you around,” Blaze said and hit the button on the fast travel network to take her to Sanctuary.

* * *

 Blaze arrived in Sanctuary and saw it was quiet, it was pretty late and she could nearby the loud bass thumps from Moxxie’s place. She headed over there and walked in, there were several people about and Moxxie was tending the bar. She looked up to see Blaze and gasped.

“Sugar you’re alive!” she cried as Blaze walked to the bar.

“Hey Moxxie give me something strong, I’m going to need to be drunk before I tell the crew what happened,” she said sitting at the bar and placing the photo down.

“Here you are, what’s that you got there?” Moxxie replied seeing the photograph.

“Something that Roland should never see,” she said. Moxxie took a look at the photograph and giggled.

“Is that you and Jack?” she said.

“We were…it’s complicated, he captured me, I punched him so hard I broke that prosthetic face of his and…somewhere along the way I realised I was attracted to the stupid bastard and now I want to screw his brains out,”

“I’ve been there literally,” Moxxie said wiping the counter. Blaze chugged the bottle and picked up the photo, putting it in the inside pocket of her jacket.

“I need to talk to Scooter first, somehow your family are the only ones who know this secret and I plan to keep it that way, also did you really try to convince Jack that Scooter was his kid?”

“You shoulda’ seen the look on his face when I told him,” she answered. Blaze left the bar and headed over to Scooter who was tinkering with a car.  
“You’re back, you going to find your crew?” Scooter asked her.

“Yeah, but Scooter, what do you know so far?” she asked him.

“You were in the Dust with Jack…helping him fight bandits, I didn’t see you two kiss or nothing,” Scooter answered.

“Good because no one can know, especially not Lilith and Roland, I know what they would say,” she told him.

“Okay Blaze, I did put an upgrade in your car so you can fire bigger projectiles, should help in the future,” Scooter replied.

“Thanks Scooter, catch-a-riiiide,” she said as she started to run towards the gates of Sanctuary.


	10. Reunion

Blaze drove through Three Horns Valley and turned on her ECHO.

“Hey Slim!” she called above the noise of Skags chasing her and firing projectiles.  
“Blaze, is that you?” Slim asked slightly confused.

“I’m back, you didn’t think Jack could hold me prisoner did you,” she said.

“Holy shit she’s alive, how did you do it?” Fly asked jumping on the ECHO.

“I got a hold of his gun and shot him in the foot, allowed me enough time to get away, still got his gun by the way,” she said glancing at the gun in her holster.

“Nice one, he underestimated you, come on back, we got to catch you up on a mission we’ve got planned,” Stretch said on the ECHO.

“I’m on my way,” Blaze said as she pressed the boost button and the car sped ahead along Three Horns Valley past the motel till she came to their lair. She parked the car in their catch-a-ride and jumped out.

“She lives!” Gasoline shouted. The squad ran over to smother her in a big group hug.

“I missed you guys, but come on I was gone for two days,” she said.

“Two days too long, we started planning a way to get back at Hyperion, they didn’t hurt you did they?” Slim asked.

“No, they didn’t hurt me, I did punch Jack though, I had a purple haze moment and cracked his mask, I haven’t had one since as he used the shot from Tannis on me but I don’t know how much longer it will last,” she said. Bratz still held on tight as everyone else let go of her.

“I missed you,” she said.

“I was worried about you Bratz, all of you guys, I don’t know what Jack is planning but the bastard has an AI program called Angel who helps him out, if I could get to her core program, I bet that I could find out what he’s planning, she was very chatty,” Blaze told them.

“We can help with that, Jack’s got a large supply of Eridium leaving Lynchwood tomorrow, it’ll be heading through the Tundra Express, we’re going to rob the train with Tiny Tina’s help and take his Eridium for Tannis,” Stretch said.   
“Nice plan, with Jack distracted by his Eridium supply getting robbed, I can find out where this Angel is and hack her program,” Blaze said. It would be an excuse to see him again, especially if it meant she’d get a quick fumble while her crew did the job of robbing the train. Was that self-centred of her? She was designated leader of Goon Squad after the death of the Captain, but Stretch and Slim were the real bruisers who carried the squad through trouble, she was a comms girl originally.

“When is the train coming through Tundra Express?” she asked.  
“Should be coming across the bridge around noon, Tina’s going to make some explosives to break up the train so that we can isolate the carriage carrying the Eridium,” Scope said.

“Excellent, alright, let’s strategize,” Stretch said as he ordered them over the planning table. “Alright Bratz, you and Clover are going to go and set up the explosives with Tina, you’ll be in control of the remotes from a watch point.”

“Sure thing,” Clover confirmed. Keeping the pre-teens away from the bulk of the battle would be a priority.  
“Gasoline, you’ll be in charge of the car,” Slim said.

“On it,” Gasoline said as he picked up the toy car. “I’ll keep it parked near the drop zone.”

“Scope you’re on surveillance, keep any bandits and bots away from us, make sure you’ve got the corrosive sniper,” Stretch said.

“What about you two and Fly?” Blaze asked.

“I’ll be the eye in the sky, Brick’s going to lend me a Buzzard so I’ll be heading out to Thousand Cuts to grab it before hand,” Fly said.

“Smart move,” Blaze agreed.

“We’ll be securing the goods, as for you Blaze, you’ll on be on your own, are you sure you can handle it?” Slim asked.

“I’m going to use this opportunity to find the Angel core, Jack has a grounds operation near Overlook, I can search there for a comms room,” she said. It was the closest place she knew.  
“And that’s everything, we’re all set,” Slim said.

“We’ll need to rest up before hand and eat, I’m so hungry, I got one meal the whole time I was banged up and it was mostly a potato filled one,” Blaze said as her stomach growled again, much louder this time.

“I’ll make us food, who wants pasta?” Slim said. Everyone settled back down into the lair and Blaze was happy to be back with her crew. She did kind of miss Jack and that stupid grin and his sarcasm, but she missed Angel too. It felt weird to miss an AI program but she did. She sat on her bed and grabbed the battered old journal she had found that belonged to the unknown Vault Hunter and perused through it. She had no idea who the person who wrote the journal was only that the first page said ‘property of TL’ whoever that was. The person in this journal liked to bitch and moan that’s for sure, complaining about student loans and university and having to sell himself out to get out of debt and how Vault Hunting was the last thing he wanted to do. She turned the page and spotted something interesting.

 

_Apparently Hyperion are planning to make some golden city named Opportunity or something else equally stupid, I think it’s stupid but no, I had to smile and nod and smile and nod and fucking smile and nod! They started blue printing today but all I have to do is sign a document and then go back to finding the path to that Vault._

 

She turned to the last entry that she first read when she first discovered the mentions of the Vault.

 

_Jack doesn’t want me going to the Vault with the other hunters, so I’m staying with the core in Thousand Cuts to keep it stable. He’s going to freeze his ass off down there but if he gets that Vault open and gets access whatever’s down there, he could make more money than God, I asked how long I have to stay like this and he said ‘at this point you’re my twin for life’. I’m a decade younger than him but sure I’m his twin. Maybe that Brick guy will indulge me in letting me borrow a radio._

She thought back to that day she found the Vault, it was already open and she had wandered inside to six idiots all running away from this monster. She didn’t make herself known to them and instead explored further that’s when she found Jack.

 

_“You’re not one of the Vault Hunters, who are you?”_

_“I found a journal up north and followed its lead here, are you Jack?”_

_“Yes, now if you don’t mind I need to- AH!”_

That was when the tentacle stuck a big sharp spike through Jack's side and almost got pulled back, she had saved him by slicing off the tentacle with her machete. She jabbed him with a med shot and told him to run the fuck away. He ran because he remembered his six Vault Hunters had left ahead of him. And when his back was turned that’s when the monster grabbed her and she couldn’t remember much else. When she awoke, she was half covered in snow thanks to a Claptrap Unit. It helped her get off the Southern Shelf and then she was found by the Goon Squad. She looked at the last entry in the journal, Thousand Cuts was where she found it initially, and perhaps finding the author of the journal could lead her to Angel.

“Hey Slim,” she said getting up and going over to the cooking station.  
“What is it?” he asked her.

“I think I might know a way to find this Angel core, the guy who owned this journal worked with Jack and the last entry was him staying with the core in Thousand Cuts. Obviously I’d never be able to find it on my own but if I find this guy first, he’ll get me to the core, I can head to Overlook once Brick gives me some insight,” she said.

“Smart move Blaze, alright when we head off to Tundra Express you’ll head to Thousand Cuts, I’ll call ahead to Brick and let him know, his crew won’t attack you then,” he replied.

“Thanks Slim, pasta smells good,” she said as looked at the pot of pasta cooking.

“Yep and I was able to decent meat for this one, no Chunky Skag Pasta tonight,” he said. Blaze nodded in approval, though Chunky Skag Pasta was still an alright dish. Now she had a plan, find the author of the journal, find the Angel core.


	11. The Other Jack

The next morning Roland and Lilith stopped by the Goon Squad lair as they were getting ready to leave for Thousand Cuts and Tundra Express.

“Hey, we heard you managed to escape Handsome Jack’s clutches,” Lilith said.

“That I did, did you hear about how I punched him so hard I broke his face,” Blaze said. Roland laughed and handed over a box of liquid Eridium shots.

“Courtesy of Tannis, she prepared for everything and managed to make thirty shots in the space of two days, should you need it,” Roland said.

“Thanks Roland, you um, what do you know about my escape?” she asked making sure nobody had blabbed to him.

“Heard he tried to kill you in the Dust but you broke free, that’s what people are saying,” Roland said.

“I find it amusing that the most evil forty year old in the galaxy couldn’t take down an unarmed bandit,” Lilith said and started laughing.

“I wouldn’t call him evil, pretentious and so self-absorbed he probably shagged one of his own look-a-likes at one point, but not evil,” Blaze said. Roland gagged at the idea of Jack-on-Jack action.

“Don’t ever bring that up again,” he said. Blaze laughed at his reaction and jabbed herself with one of the shots before putting the rest into her bag.

“I’ll top up now for safe measure, I have to go on a manhunt for one of Jack’s old employees and it could take a while,” she said as the gang started to climb into their cars. “If I find him I’ll bring him to Sanctuary, he might have some intel for you guys, I'm guessing you're back for good Lilith,” she said and climbed into her car with Fly. Lilith waved and teleported herself and Roland back to Sanctuary.

“Alright gang let’s head on out, Fly we’ll see you in Tundra Express in a few hours,” Slim ordered.

“Aye sir, let’s go already!” Fly said as he started the car and they drove away from the lair. 

* * *

 

Thousand Cuts was feeling pretty empty but there were plenty of buzzards flying about in the air. As Blaze and Fly entered the area they saw Brick nearby a vending machine stocking up on ammo. He saw them wave and he waved back.

“Goonies you made it, alright Fly, there’s a Buzzard parked and ready to fly, just don’t break or crash it,” Brick told him.

“Sure thing Brick,” Fly assured him and ran off to the Buzzard.

“As for you, Slim said you’re looking for someone,” Brick said.

“Yeah, someone who worked for Jack lost his journal around here three years ago, I found it and it said something about going to you to borrow a radio, you know who this guy was?” Blaze asked showing him the journal.

“Oh yeah, the doppelgänger,” Brick said.

“Who?” Blaze asked.

“The doppelgänger, some poor sap who got hired to be Jack, yeah, he hated being a Vault Hunter and working for Hyperion, asked me if I could give him a radio to entertain himself while he got stuck babysitting, I went to get him one but then he started getting attacked by Hyperion bots for talking to my crew, he never got the radio, he got attacked by Hyperion Bots and made a run for it, I remember he said ‘screw this I’m heading back to Rotgut’,” Brick told her.

“Rotgut?”  
“Rotgut Distillery, that craphole of a fishing village where the Zaford’s other distillery is, best bet is he’s still out there hiding from Hyperion,” Brick said. Blaze nodded and wrote down the name.

“Alright I’ll check it out, thanks Brick,” Blaze said.

“No problem Goonie, if you see him, tell him Brick says hi,” Brick said. Blaze waved goodbye and went on the fast travel network to get to Rotgut Distillery.

* * *

 

The name suited the place, Rotgut Distillery was a miserable craphole of a fishing village that had Thresher’s swimming about like ducks. Blaze’s hair was already ruined by the rain and there would be no doubt that Handsome Jack would never want to step foot in a place like this.

“Good place to hide,” she said to herself as she walked into the village. Several Zafords’ were fishing and walked through. They paid her no mind as they went about their business and she walked up to one who was baiting his fishing rod.  
“Hey uh…Zaford, is there a guy here who arrived about three years ago wearing some kind of Hyperion clothing?” she asked.

“Eh, you’ll want the house at the end there, guy never leaves it,” the Zaford said briefly pointing at the house and continued to bait his fishing rod. She walked over to the house, which seemed very quaint and knocked on the door.

“Who is it?” a muffled voice asked from the other side.

“Hi I’m…Blaze, I’m looking for someone and you might be the guy, can I come in?” she asked.

“You work for Hyperion?” the muffled voice asked.

“No, no I’m friends with Brick, he told me you might be here,” she said. There was a long pause before the door opened. She walked in cautiously to see a man who looked point for point like Handsome Jack leaning against a table.

“What do you want?” he asked irritated.

“Holy crap, you really are his doppelgänger,” she said. She stared at him trying to understand what she was looking at, before she remembered her comment from earlier. “So, you’re the guy in this journal, the one I found,” she added showing him the journal.

“I thought I lost that when I ran from Hyperion, but what are- why do you keep staring at me like that?” he asked her as she stared at him in surprise. He even sounded like Jack.

“Sorry I’ve had a weird few days, I need a favour, I need to get to the Angel core and you know where it is right?” she asked him.

“Why do you need to find the Angel core?” he asked her.

“Because she knows what Jack is doing and I want to find out what it is, he kidnapped me and then suddenly let me go,” she told him.

“Why would he do that?” Doppel-Jack asked her.

“Well…we might have made out on a Cliffside in the Dust, but I know he turned the tables once he found out I had Siren-esque powers, were I regular pain in the ass he would have killed me,” she told him.

“You’re a Siren?” he said in surprise.

“Yes, no, I don’t fucking know, I take Eridium and I can punch things really hard when I use the power, the point is, I want to know why he treated me like a lab rat for several hours and then after making out in the Dust, let me go,” she told him.

“Okay kid, first off, you’re thinking way too hard about this, chill out for a second, secondly I can take you to the Angel core, but I won’t, because thirdly, I don’t want to get involved with this Hyperion crap again,” Doppel-Jack told her.

“Please, you’re the only person who can help me, my squad are currently robbing one of his trains and I don’t know how long that will distract him for, please, if I can’t get back to Jack…I know he’s doing something with a Vault Key, I just have to find out what because it might explain why I’m this way,” she said she summoned the Eridium power that engulfed her arm. Doppel-Jack sighed and looked away from her before nodding.

“Alright I’ll help you, I know Angel pretty well so she shouldn’t be too frightened if I’m there,” he said. Blaze smiled and sighed.  
“Thank you so much uh…what do I call you?” she asked.

“For now just call me Jay,” he said.

“Alright Jay, how do we get to the Angel core?”

“Easy, I have direct access from the fast travel network because Jack needed me to be there when he went for that Vault three years ago, I have access to a lot of places with this face, there’s a voice recognition password, again easy to get by, but I hope he hasn’t changed the password,” he told her as he put on his duster. “I should warn you though, the Angel core…it’s not going to be what you expect.”


	12. Angel

It was an easy teleportation to the Bunker that sat above the Angel core, the robots believed that Jay was the real Handsome Jack and stood down when ordered to and granted him access to the elevator that went down to the core.

“It’s surprising how trusting the bots are to you,” Blaze noted as they stepped up to the door.

“I had to learn a lot in order to pass as Jack,” Jay said as he activated the scanner.

“Scanning…Scan completed, access granted, hello sexy, please give the password for further access,” the automatic voice said.

“I love you,” Jay said into the microphone.

“Password accepted,” the automatic voice said as the doors opened and they stepped into the elevator. Blaze pressed the button and the lift started to descend, it was strange how Jack hadn’t noticed, but also a relief. She then thought back to the joke she made to Roland.

“Can I ask you a rather…odd question?” she asked Jay.

“What?” he answered.

“Did Jack ever make a move on you?” she enquired. Jay was silent, blushing, before he started to laugh.

“Once, he got drunk and thought I was his reflection in a mirror, it was funny until he kissed me and then realised I wasn’t a mirror, then it got weird.” Blaze laughed, looks like she was right after all.

“I wish Roland was here to hear this,” she said. The elevator stopped and the doors opened. Jay walked forward and pressed another button as a door opened to reveal a large chamber with a central point being pumped with Eridium. Blaze walked in to see a girl floating idly inside the central chamber.

“Father?” the girl asked slightly excitedly.

“Wrong Jack kiddo, I brought someone to see you though,” he said as Blaze walked forward

“Blaze…you’re here,” the girl said. Blaze’s mouth dropped in surprise.

“Angel?” she asked. She was a real person, alive, not a program, she was a teenage girl. “You’re…human.”

“Is it so surprising, I’m also a Siren, currently helping charge the Vault key, it’ll be finished charging soon, when it is…I can’t leave, but what are you doing here, if my father finds out.”

“Jack’s your father, oh this just leaves more questions, but I came here looking to hack the Angel core, I don’t even think that’s possible,” Blaze said.

“It’s not, the Eridium is helping me survive at this point, I’m too dependent on it, if you broke these injectors I’d die,” Angel told her. Blaze could empathise.

“I feel dependent on Eridium too, having to keep injecting it into my system to stop myself from going crazy, that’s why I came here, to see if I could find out why I’ve got these powers,” Blaze said.

“I know why, I heard what happened in that Vault that day, but I don’t think that’s the only reason, you have feelings for Jack,” Angel said.

“You have feelings for Jack?” Jay said not believing it.

“Does he know I’m here?” Blaze asked.

“No, do you want him to know?” Angel asked her. Blaze paused, she did but she didn’t, she didn’t want him knowing she had found his secret. She also didn’t want Jay to get killed for getting her in here.

“Let Jay leave first, then let him know,” Blaze said.

“Okay, thank you, I’ll make sure father leaves you alone,” Angel said to Jay.

“Thank you Angel and you, Blaze, you never saw me,” he said and walked back out to the lift. Blaze watched the doors close and turned back to Angel.

“You said you know what happened that day in the vault, how?” Blaze asked her.  
“This was the echo that I managed to pick up, playing audio transmission.” A lot of static started to play.

“You need to get out here now, go! at least he’s safe now I can AH! AHHHHHHHHH! AHHH! HELP ME!!! YOU SHALL BE THE NEW VESSEL! AHHHHHHHHHHHHH!” static continued and then stopped. Blaze stood there horrified, at her screams and at the eldritch noise that had spoken out and called her a vessel.

“What the hell happened to me?” she said.

“You might have to go back to the vault and find out,” Angel told her. Blaze looked down, going back to that Vault, it wasn’t something she wanted to do alone. Would Jack come?  
“Can you take me to Jack?” she asked her.

“I can bring him here…do you…are we still friends?” Angel asked her. Blaze chuckled and nodded.

“Of course we are Angel, if I could I’d break you out of here and you could join my squad, you’ve got a good name already, it’s fucked up that he keeps you locked up like this though, I’d hate to be caged up like this,” she said. Angel sent a signal out and, suddenly, Jack teleported into the chamber.

“Angel I- Blaze?” Jack said seeing Blaze standing in front of the chamber.

“Hi Jack,” she said with a smile. Jack was stunned, did he hug her, kiss her or yell at her, he wasn’t sure what to do.

“How did you get in here?” he asked her unsure if she was real or not.

“Does it matter, I wanted to see you,” she said. “You might have let me go, but I couldn’t stay away.”  
“Apparently not,” Jack said walking towards her. He reached and touched her face. “I’d be lying if I said I didn’t miss you in the…sixteen hours we’ve been apart.” Blaze laughed, she wanted to kiss him but was still aware of Angel standing behind her in the chamber.

“Is it wise, Angel’s right there,” she said.

“Angel sweetie, look away,” Jack told her. Angel complied and covered her eyes with her hand, sneaking a peak through a small gap in her fingers as Jack kissed Blaze. “Want to get out of here?” he suggested. Blaze was about to answer when her ECHO beeped.

“One second,” she said and moved so he was out of sight of her ECHO HUD and pressed her ear piece. “You’re here with Blaze.”

“We have secured the goods, should have seen that train explode, Tina came through with some nice explosives,” Slim said on the ECHO.

“You’re welcome bitches,” Tiny Tina cut in.

“Nice work guys, rendezvous back at Tina’s and I’ll be there in…twenty minutes,” she said and cut out. “We don’t have a lot of time.”

“Make sure no one sees you two, the ECHO waves are rife with rumours,” Angel said to her.

“We’ll be careful sweetie, don’t you worry, just worry about the key,” Jack told her. Angel looked down and nodded.

“Sure,” she said.

“Hey Angel,” Blaze said walking to the shield and placing her hand on it. “I’ll get you out of here, I’ll find a way,” she said in a low voice so Jack couldn’t hear her.

“You will,” Angel asked.

“You bet I will,” Blaze promised her and turned back to Jack. “Let’s go, I’ve got nineteen minutes.” She walked to Jack and he pulled her close to him and teleported them out. Angel waved and sighed. She could never be free, no matter what Blaze promised.

 

* * *

 

 

Jack teleported them to the safety of his Hyperion quarters where they could see down onto Pandora.  
“Looking at it from this height, you wouldn’t believe how big of a craphole this planet is,” Blaze observed.

“And that’s why I want to civilise it, so it ain’t filled with Psychos who want my head on their merry-go-rounds,” Jack told her. Blaze laughed and pulled him into a kiss.

“You have eighteen minutes, go,” she said. Jack wasted no time, he picked her up and took her to his bed and dropped her down on her back. He climbed over her and quickly went to work taking off his duster and working on his waistcoat and shirt. Blaze pulled off her jacket and pulled off her already ripped top, ripping it some more as she wrenched it off and threw them off to the side. She kissed Jack again, her hands going to work undoing his trousers.

“What did you say to Angel?” Jack asked her suddenly. She paused and smiled up at him.

“That I’d visit her again, I am her only friend after all, let’s not get distracted, we have seventeen minutes before I have to meet with my crew and I want to utilise every minute,” she told him as she pushed him off her and started to unlace her boots. She quickly tore them off and pulled off her torn up jeans and looked at Jack who was still had his trousers on.

“What are you waiting for?” she asked him.

“Your reaction,” he answered as he removed them and pulled down the tight black boxers he had on. Blaze’s mouth dropped slightly and curved into a smile.

“Moxxie you should have warned me,” she muttered as she grabbed Jack’s hand and pulled him to her, she had fifteen minutes and she was going to savour every last one.


	13. Fifteen Minutes

Jack pushed Blaze down and climbed over, pulling the tight crop vest up over her head and over his shoulder. He trailed kisses around her neck and collarbone as his hands cupped and squeezed her breasts, a feeling he had been craving for a long time now. He left one hand to play as the other moved down her body, sliding down the curve of her waist to the dips of her pelvis and let his hand inside her panties. He hand gripped at her, fingers exploring, finding tight curls and a warm wetness that he knew was for him. Blaze moaned at his touch, her fingers tangling up in his hair. She slightly wished he wasn’t wearing the mask, to see the real Jack underneath. She let go of him as he hooked both of his hands on the waistband of her panties

“Baby, how long have you been waiting for this?” he asked her as he pulled them down her legs.

“Would you believe me if I said three years?” she asked as he climbed over and teased her with his erection.

“Yes I can,” he whispered and kissed her passionately. She moaned and brought her hands back to his hair.

“Just fuck me already,” she told him and bucked her hips against his. Jack smirked and pinned her left arm down.

“You’re going to struggle walking when I’m done here,” he said as he pushed himself inside her. Blaze tensed slightly then relaxed as she felt the rhythm get good and arched her back slightly. Oh she had definitely been getting advice from Moxxie, Jack thought as she moved with him. But the image was perfect, like he had imagined when she was still his prisoner. Breasts bouncing, quite enthusiastically as she interlocked her left hand with his right hand and gripped tight, her mouth was hanging open, sighs and breaths escaping her. The only difference was in her eyes, in his fantasy he wanted to see fear, but here he saw desire and something incredibly intimate. He thrust harder and faster, his caressed her face and he wanted to say something, but there was only one thing he could hear shouting in his head.

“Oh god, Jack,” she moaned feeling a wondrous flow of pleasure, how long did he have left?

“Blaze,” he uttered before he felt his burst and came within her, he fell onto her body, head on her chest hearing her heart thumping vigorously. He breathed out, her grip on his hand loosened and he looked at her. She was smiling, close to laughing.

“What’s so funny?” he asked her.

“When I was chained up, I told myself I wouldn’t sleep with you and yet here I am,” she said sitting up. Jack leaned up, still inside her and kissed her softly. This kiss was different, it was laced with something else, something that made Blaze wrap her arms around and just hold him there, still deep within her, just being one with him. She spied the time on the wall.

“And we still have three minutes to go,” she said.

“I should get you back down to Pandora,” Jack said.

“Not yet, just let me savour this moment, this feeling,” she said and hugged him tight. Who knows how long she would have before they could do this again. “Okay, I’m ready.” She said and let go of Jack.

 

* * *

 

 

Once she and Jack were fully dressed, he teleported her down to Tundra Express by the fast travel network and a nest of Varkids.

“Well this is where we part, sorry about the Eridium, but you understand right,” Blaze said.

“Hmm, risk losing over two million dollars’ worth of Eridium to go have sex or not have sex…worth it, I’ve still got more money than God,” Jack said with a sly smile. Blaze laughed and gave him a final kiss.

“Maybe we do this again in a few days,” she said. “I’ll find a way to sneak off from my crew.”

“You do that, I’ve got you on my ECHO anyway,” Jack said. Blaze gripped at his collar, held him for a moment and then let go and started to run through the Varkid nest towards Tiny Tina’s hideout. Jack watched her run, he looked up and spied a bird flying through the air. He paid it no mind and teleported away.

 

* * *

 

 

Blaze reached Tiny Tina’s hideout and saw her crew all chilling with large crates of Eridium.

“She returns, so how did the manhunt go, Brick called in and said he sent you off over an hour ago on a lead?” Slim enquired as she approached them.

“I found our man, he looked exactly like Jack and he got me into the Angel core, you want to know the messed up part, Angel’s not an AI, she’s a sixteen year old girl, Jack’s daughter is a Siren,” she told them.

“Damn son, Jack be keeping her locked up like a Skag in a cage, that’s cray-cray,” Tina piped up.

“I’ll say, she’s hooked up to injectors that keep her on a constant supply of Eridium, she’d die if they were removed, we just need to find a way to get her out alive,” Blaze said.

“What would taking her away do?” Gasoline asked.

“Stop the key charging, poor girl’s been locked in an isolation chamber for the good part of a decade, she needs freedom and- Clover what is it?” Blaze asked noting that Clover was grimacing at her.

“Why do you smell like sweat and cologne?” she asked her. Blaze couldn’t answer that, not without revealing that it was because she had spent the better part of twenty minutes underneath Handsome Jack.

“Yeah girl, that stink is rank, did you go on a manhunt or a ‘man’ hunt?” Tina asked her. Blaze needed to bullshit her way out of this and fast.

“I had to persuade him to help, he ran away from Hyperion but in running away he couldn’t exactly undo his surgery that made him look like Jack so he hid out in Rotgut and…look how I did it is not important,” she said.

“No but I think we can all guess,” Clover commented.

“If I can get Angel out alive, no one will think to look for her in Rotgut, we keep her there, heal her up before bringing her to our lair, but if we’re going to do this, I only have one request,” Blaze said.  
“What’s that?” Slim asked her.

“Roland, Lilith, Mordecai, and Brick, none of them can know about Angel, they want to stop Jack badly and she would be the key to doing that, Angel’s his weakness,” Blaze told them. It was a risky plan and would certainly piss off Jack and there wouldn’t be any way out without a teleporter, if she could convince Jack to get her one, it would be easy to get in and get Angel out. “And our other problem is Eridium, she would need an IV drip to sustain her outside of that isolation chamber.”

“I reckon Tannis could help, we give her this Eridium and ask her to give us oh…fifteen to twenty bags of Liquid Eridium, it could help,” Stretch suggested.

“Smart, okay let’s get this Eridium to Sanctuary, thanks for the help Tina,” Blaze said high-fiving the girl.

“No problem girl, you need me to blow up anymore shiz just give me a call,” Tina said.

“Alright crew let’s get moving, we’ve got a lot of crates to deal with,” Slim ordered to the squad.

 

* * *

 

 

Once all the crates had reached Sanctuary, the news of Blaze’s escape from Hyperion had circled, and the strange order had been given to Tannis, everyone felt it was easier to chill for the evening Sanctuary before heading back to the lair. Blaze headed to Moxxie who was working at the bar and sat down on the stool. Moxxie chuckled at the glow Blaze was radiating.

“Judging by that smile, you and you-know-who had some fun,” she observed.

“Oh it really was fun, he was really good,” she noted.

“Well he may be pure evil but he’s incredibly experienced…he didn’t choke you did he?” she asked Blaze.

“No, but when he kissed me, I don’t know, it didn’t feel shallow, it felt genuine, like he actually cares, is it possible?” Blaze answered.

“I’ve spoken with many of his past girlfriends, including his second wife, none of them ever had a ‘genuine’ kiss, not even me,” Moxxie said. Blaze thought for a moment before an explosion startled her and Fly was standing by the slots which had landed on three Psychos.

“Sorry,” he said rather sheepishly before pulling the handle on the slots again. Blaze went back to her drink and saw Mordecai enter the bar.

“Hey Mordecai, I haven’t seen you in a while, how are thing?” she said to him with a friendly wave. He gave her a scrutinising stare and gestured for Lilith and Roland, who had been sitting at a booth, to follow him. She watched the three of them leave the bar and paused for a moment, what could they want to talk about?


	14. Guilt Trip

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It ain't Borderlands without the appearance of Mister Torgue High-Five Flexington

Several days had passed since Blaze and Jack’s encounter and she was getting restless, the plan was going together slowly and she still hadn’t thought of a way to get a teleporter that would give her access to Angel and there was also the matter of the Vault in the Southern Shelf she had to go back to. She was reluctant to give information about the Jack doppelganger to Lilith and Roland and simply lied saying he’d been killed in the Rotgut Distillery by the Thresher’s and that all she had found was a hand which was promptly eaten by a Thresher, which made a conversation she had with Lilith all the more difficult after learning that the Crimson Raiders knew about the Angel Core.

“I was only asking because of what Mordecai told us, he said he saw you and Handsome Jack in Tundra Express,” Lilith said to Blaze in Moxxie’s bar.

“Are you sure Mordecai wasn’t drunk or misinformed, he’s always getting false info from some crazy source…or Bloodwing,” Blaze suggested. Lilith shrugged at the question.

“Just telling you what he told me, what is your plan now?” she asked Blaze.

“I am going to pay a visit to Mister Torgue, got a proposition for him,” she said as she tipped Moxxie a hundred.

“Thank you Sugar,” Moxxie said and blew her a kiss. Blaze grinned and stood up.

“By the way, you may want to tell Roland there is no way he can get into that Angel Core, not without raising Jack’s double from the dead, how did he even know about the core?” Blaze said.

“That Hyperion guy we found was very talkative, we just need a way in and we can find the key,” Lilith said. Blaze laughed and nodded slowly.

“Sure, well I’ll see you later,” she said before jabbing herself with another Eridium shot and leaving the bar. Lilith watched Blaze leave and turned to Moxxie.

“Moxxie, you’d tell us if she’s hiding something right, you two are pretty close,” Lilith said. Moxxie looked down and continued to clean the beer glass.

“Lilith, honey, Blaze is a good girl, she’s strong and too smart to betray the Crimson Raiders, what are you worried about?” she asked.

“It’s what Mordecai told me, he’s adamant that saw her with Handsome Jack in Tundra Express and that they kissed each other in a pretty serious way, do you think she’d sleep with Jack?” Lilith said. Moxxie bit her lip, she made a promise and she wouldn’t break it.

“If she really was sleeping with Jack, she would have had bruises on her neck, he’s a choker and as far as I saw, there were no bruises,” Moxxie told her. Lilith still wasn’t convinced, but it was all she had to go on. Maybe someone else knew something.

 

* * *

 

 

Blaze arrived from the fast travel point to a desert waste called the Crater. According to the latest reports the Torgue Corporation was operating in a small warehouse nearby and Mister Torgue was doing promos for some up and coming reality show that was yet to debut. She arrived to the warehouse where Mister Torgue was in front of a green screen.

“IF YOU THINK THAT YOU’RE BADASS COME ON DOWN! HOW WAS THAT?” Mister Torgue shouted to the director.

“Fine, okay let’s take five people,” the director said. Blaze waved to Mister Torgue who started to air guitar as she approached him.

“BLAZE, WHAT IS A BAADD GOONIE LIKE YOU DOING VISITING ME, ARE YOU HERE TO REVEL IN SOME EXPLOOOOSSSSIOONNNS?” he yelled at her.

“Good to see you Mister Torgue, how’s your grandma?” Blaze asked.

“SHE IS FINE THANK YOU FOR ASKING!” Mister Torgue answered.

“I’m actually here with an offer, I need a gun that’s powerful enough to break through very powerful shields, got any?” she asked him.

“I HAVE SO MANY EXPLOSIVE GUNS I DON’T KNOW WHAT TO F*****G DO WITH THEM, FOLLOW ME!” Mister Torgue yelled as the word ‘fucking’ got censored by his voice modulator.

“Mister Torgue where are you going, we have to cut three more promos,” a producer said as Mister Torgue and Blaze walked by him.

“I HAVE BUSINESS WITH THIS YOUNG LADY, I WILL BE BACK,” Mister Torgue told him very loudly. “IN REGARDS TO YOUR REQUEST, I MIGHT HAVE A GRENADE OR A RIFLE THAT CAN DO THE EXPLOSIVE DAMAGE YOU REQUIRE, AFTER ALL WEARETHETORGUECORPORATIONANDEXPOSIONSISWHATWEDOBEST.” Blaze nodded barely understanding that very fast quotation from Mister Torgue.

“So long as it can break through a Shield I’ll be happy with it,” Blaze said to him. Mister Torgue brought her to a wall that had several Torgue brand guns placed all over. Mister Torgue looked at the wall and grabbed a rifle.

“THIS SHOULD WORK AND BECAUSE I LIKE YOU I AM GOING TO GIVE THIS TO YOU FREE OF CHARGE. FRRIIIEENNDSSHIPP!” Mister Torgue yelled as he handed her the rifle.

“You’re too kind Mister T, give grandma a high five from me when you see her, I have some plotting to do,” Blaze said as she high-fived Mister Torgue and started to leave with the rifle.

“What are you doing with that rifle, that’s Torgue property, you can’t leave with that,” the producer called to Blaze as he pointed to her.

“IT’S A GIFT!” Mister Torgue shouted to the Producer. Blaze laughed as she left with the rifle, she had a weapon that could break the injectors now she had to rely on her team to make the perfect distraction plan so she could get in and out.

 

* * *

 

 

When Blaze arrived back at her lair and hid the Torgue Rifle, her ECHO beeped and it was Jack. Lucky for her the Goon Squad were out with Sir Hammerlock for an outing in the country.

“You’re live with Blaze,” she said in a heavy seductive tone, checking herself out in the mirror.

“Mmmm, your voice is so sexy when you talk like that, got a minute to spare?” he asked her.

“I’ve got all the time in the world, Hammerlock to the crew to go hunting for monsters, what do you want?” Blaze answered.

“Well I’ve got a present for you, should make our meeting up easier, where do you want to meet?” Jack asked. Blaze thought, where would be a good place to meet. She saw a photograph of her crew in the Highlands not long before Captain died and smiled.

“Meet me in the Highlands, there’s a cliff near Overlook that’ll be a good spot, you may want to send all your employees nearby away though, to keep things under wraps,” she said.

“Sure thing,” Jack said and cut out. Blaze turned away from the photo and left to the fast travel network to get to the Highlands.

 

* * *

 

 

Out in the Highlands she reached the cliff that sat atop of Overlook and stood there waiting, there was no wind and Stalkers were crawling about below but the late afternoon sun made the Highlands look pleasant.

“Nice view, but I’ve seen better,” she heard Jack comment as he appeared behind her.

“Nice to see you showed up, so what’s my present?” she said turning around with a smile. Jack took her wrist and placed a small metal band around it.

“Just press that little button and have a place in mind and it’ll take you there,” he said. “Now you can sneak away to see me whenever you want.” Blaze kissed him in response.

“I like it, but we have a tiny problem,” she said. Jack’s smile faded into concern

“What sort of problem?” he asked.

“Mordecai may have seen us in Tundra Express together, I shot him down, put it down to a drunken haze but he’s sticking to that story, so far Ellie, Scooter and Moxxie have stayed quiet and I got that photograph from Loggins,” she told him.

“So we’ll just have to be extra careful, but we don’t have to here,” Jack said and turned around to view the Highlands, his arms wrapped tightly around her. “After all, this is Hyperion territory all this and we don’t have to be discreet.” A strange moment passed, Blaze felt safe, as strange as the thought sounded to her. Being in Jack’s arms felt safe and she felt immense guilt for the plan she was about to go ahead with. The sun started to sink beneath the horizon as the moon got brighter behind the Hyperion station.

“Elpis is looking good tonight,” she noted.

“I’ve been up there, don’t know if I’d go back though,” he told her.

“When did you go to Elpis?” Blaze asked.

“A few years ago, I could take you back, just you and me,” Jack suggested as he gently swayed Blaze. Blaze liked the idea, but she had plans, one of which would hurt Jack incredibly.

“One day, there’s some things I’d have to do first,” she said and leaned against him. Jack sighed and kissed her head. Was it right to say it now?

“I…”

“Yes Jack?”

“I…I’m glad you’re here.”


	15. Sweet Escape

It was late in the night as Blaze and Jack cuddled on the Cliffside in the Highlands looking up at the night sky. Blaze rested her head on Jack’s chest, hearing the soft beats of his heart against his chest, the air had cooled down significantly but the sky remained cloudless and bright with stars.

“Are you from Pandora?” Jack asked her, she seemed too sane to be from Pandora to him.

“No, I don’t know where I’m from, I just know my parents and I were on a ship bound for Elpis when something went wrong and we had to make an emergency landing on Pandora, we never made it to Elpis, could never get a ship out, they died when I was fourteen thanks to some bandits and I was on my own for about six years and then I met Archie…and then I met my crew, they’re the only family I have left and they somehow stayed sane on this planet, the Captain took me in when he saw how broken I was,” Blaze told him.

“Captain, did he have a name besides that?” Jack asked, he knew a Captain, but he wasn’t sure of the last name.

“Captain Holdrek, but he preferred Captain,” she answered.

“Must have been a stand-up guy,” he said.

“He was, he was going to marry Hammerlock but then…” she stopped.

“What happened?” he asked her. Blaze was silent for a moment before cuddling closer to him.

“About four weeks later Captain had to go and deal with some business in Frostburn Canyon…he never came back,” she told him. The memory stung hard and she remembered having to break the news to Hammerlock about his new fiancé, never had she seen the man so broken. “First mom and dad, then Thumper, Archie and then Captain.”

“Who was Thumper?”

“My pet Skag, he was adorable,” Blaze said and leaned up to look at him. “What about you, you must have your share of losses.” She said. Jack nodded there was one.

“My first wife,” he said. “Angel looks a lot like her these days.” Angel, the one thing he treasured more than the thing that made him rich. “Hard to believe that was ten years ago now, she didn’t meant to, Angel had no idea what was going to happen.”

“So why do you keep her locked up in a cage?” Blaze asked him.

“At first it was keep her in control but I think I left her too long, she can’t leave it, not without a constant stream of Eridium to keep her alive,” Jack replied. Blaze sighed, she knew her plan was risky, getting Angel out of that chamber safely and keep her alive was going to be hard. Hopefully with all the liquid Eridium they had stored away it would help stabilize her.

“I’d love to stay but I should probably get going, my crew are probably back from hunting with Hammerlock and they’ll be wondering where I am, maybe I should tell them, I shouldn’t keep a secret like this from them,” Blaze said sitting up.

“No stay, we don’t need to leave yet, if you leave then I have to go back up to the station and it’s boring up there, Jack said sitting up and hugging her tight.

“If I stay away any longer they’ll start to call,” Blaze said. Jack pulled her back for a kiss.

“Please stay, I…” Jack stopped. Why couldn’t he say that stupid phrase, how hard was it to say three words.

“What?” Blaze asked as he pressed his forehead to hers for a moment.

“I really miss you when you leave,” he finally said. It was close but it wasn’t what he really wanted to say. Blaze chuckled for a moment and kissed him.

“The elusive Handsome Jack, five minutes with me and he turns into a lovesick teenager when I have to leave,” she said as he let her go. They both stood up and Jack gave her one final kiss.

“Don’t stay away too long,” he told her.

“I’ll try not to,” she said and pressed the button on the band to teleport away. Jack stood there alone and sighed.

“Couldn’t even say it to her face,” he muttered to himself before teleporting away.

 

* * *

 

 

Blaze teleported back to the lair and walked in to see the squad relaxing. She had to tell them the truth, she knew they wouldn’t tell the Crimson Raiders.

“She returns, where were you all evening?” Gasoline asked her.

“Out, I have to tell you guys something, it’s pretty big and could change the very dynamic of our situation with the Crimson Raiders,” she said. Slim could see something was up and beckoned her forward.

“What is it Blaze?” he asked her as the crew gathered around.

“When I was prisoner on Hyperion, I had a plan to escape, I wasn’t proud of it, but it got me a hot meal and a bath and how I met Angel initially. After Jack had his scientists conduct that invasive medical exam, took DNA and stuff he took me to his Wildlife Preserve to see my ‘Siren’ powers in action, and then after all that he took me to the Dust to help him kill that Gyro dude who stolen a bunch of weapons from Hyperion, well one thing led to another and then…when you guys were blowing up his train to get the Eridium I might have been…having sex with him on his space station,” she explained, muttering the last part. There was silence among the squad before Bratz piped up.

“What was it like?” she asked before Clover nudged her.

“Seriously Bratz, that’s your question, not why she was having sex with him, are you in love with him or something, did he mess your brain up or something?” Clover asked her.

“No, no messing up, he had me prisoner for less than two days and when we were in the Dust, that’s when I realised I was attracted to him and he let me go,” Blaze said.

“He willingly let you go?” Slim asked not believing it.

“That ain’t Jack,” Scope said.

“I’m telling you this because I’m worried the Crimson Raiders know, Mordecai saw me and Jack in Tundra Express saying goodbye to each other I don’t know if he has any concreate proof so I don’t know if Roland, Brick or Lilith believe him but if they found a photograph or audio recording, they will kill me, I think I’m really starting to fall for the idiot,” Blaze told them all. Stretch stood up and walked over to her.

“They ain’t gonna find out because once we rescue Angel, we’re leaving Three Horns, I don’t know where we’ll go but we won’t be able to stay here with Jack’s daughter, if I give Mister Torgue a call, he may be able to get us a ship out of here,” he said to them all.

“Stretch is right, we’re going after Jack’s biggest catalyst so we’re going to need a place to hide after we pull this off,” Slim said.

“I know a way to get her out, Jack gave me a teleporter, it can take me anywhere, I can get in, get her out with the gun from Mister Torgue and get her out to Rotgut Distillery where the Doppelganger is, that is where we all meet, I will go in alone, you guys are going to have to pack up the lair and meet me out there and make sure you have the liquid Eridium ready, I’m sure Moxxie will lend a hand, she knows and I trust her,” Blaze said.

“Smart, so when is this all going down?” Fly asked.

“Tomorrow, get rested and tomorrow immediately start packing and get over to Rotgut,” Blaze ordered to them.  
“Alright you heard Blaze, tomorrow we move out and reconvene at Rotgut Distillery,” Slim told the crew.

“I’m going to call Moxxie and tell her the plan,” Blaze said and brought up her ECHO to call Moxxie. “Moxxie it’s Blaze.”

“Hi Sugar, bit late isn’t it?” Moxxie answered.

“I’m breaking Jack’s daughter out tomorrow and I’m taking her to your old stomping grounds, meet us there,” Blaze told her.

“You got it sugar, I’ll make sure to bring Ellie and Scooter too,” Moxxie said and hung up. Blaze jumped onto her bunk and settled down. Tomorrow she was going to break out Angel.

 

* * *

 

 

Inside Sanctuary late into the night, Mordecai sat staring at the data chip he had found. Given to him by an anonymous source who had merely left it at a dead drop, he waited for Roland, Brick and Lilith to return so he could show them. They had everything ready to break into the Angel core and were counting on the Slabs for air support.

“Alright Mordecai, what is it why’d you wake us up at this hour?” Roland said.

“None of you believed when I told you what I saw in Tundra Express, well now I have proof, proof that I was right, someone left this for me to find, saying it could be used to blackmail Handsome Jack into giving us the key,” Mordecai said.

“Well what’s on it?” Lilith wondered.

“Probably some sleazy photographs or movies,” Brick suggested. Mordecai plugged in the data chip and several images and a short video popped up. Roland’s mouth dropped as Brick started laughing and Lilith stared in shock at the images of Handsome Jack and Blaze making out in the Dust on the cliff, again in the Tundra Express kissing goodbye and the video.

“What’s in the video?” Lilith asked. Mordecai pressed a button as the video started and it showed security footage from the Hyperion Station, from Jack’s own bedroom on the station, of Blaze and Jack having sex. Lilith's face slowly started to move from shock as she furrowed her brow, gritted her teeth and started to get a faint glow around her.

“THAT BITCH!”


	16. Rescue

The sun had barely started to rise as the Goon Squad started to pack up the lair and get ready to leave. Scooter had given Blaze a call saying Lilith was furious and yelling loud enough that most of Sanctuary could hear her and that they should start running because she was royally pissed.

“Okay I think we’ve got everything,” Slim said as they climbed into their car.

“You got the Eridium bags, I’m going to need that prepped for when I get to Rotgut, I’m not sure if my shots will sustain Angel for long, go to Jay’s house, tell him I sent you and get set up, I’ll ECHO you when I’ve got Angel,” Blaze told him.

“You got it, stay safe Blaze,” Slim said and started the car. They drove off into the valley and Blaze teleported to Angel’s location, she remembered it clearly a large isolation chamber that was very purple in lighting. As she arrived at the chamber, she saw Angel sitting alone.

“Angel,” Blaze said running the chamber.

“Blaze, what are you doing here, how did you get in so easily?” Angel asked in surprise.

“Your dad gave me a teleporter, I’m getting you out of here, I have enough Eridium shots that hopefully they’ll be able to keep you sustained till we get you hooked up to an IV, Tannis made us a lot of Eridium IV bags, now, how can I break those shields without being detected?” Blaze said.

“You’ll need to reach the console up there and manually disable each shield, you do that and Jack shouldn’t notice, but are you sure this is smart, what would Jack say if he found out?” Angel said as Blaze started to scale up the wall to the bridge above her.

“He’ll be mad but I’m doing this from a place of love, you might not think it but you’re the most important thing to him and getting you out of here will be good for two reasons, one you won’t be trapped in this bubble of crazy bullshit and two, the Crimson Raiders are going to be coming for you to destroy you, they don’t know you’re just a kid,” Blaze explained to her as she reached the bridge and ran along to the console.

“Aren’t you allies with the Crimson Raiders?” Angel asked her.

“Not anymore I don’t think,” Blaze answered. “Can you help me out here kid, I can’t make sense of this console.”

“Pull up the shield information and press override on each one, it’ll take several hours to disable them, then you can destroy the injectors without setting off the weaponry in the room,” Angel told her. Blaze followed her instructions and started to disable each one.

“Angel can I ask you something?” Blaze asked as she watched the levels for each shield deplete slowly.

“What’s on your mind?”

“Is it bad that I might love your dad?” Blaze asked unsure of herself.

“Why do you think it’s bad?”

“Because I know what kind of man he is, he’s tyrannical, he’s got a God complex, he killed people and revelled in it and yet…oh God,” Blaze said as she jumped down.

“And yet you care about him all the same,” Angel said.

“Yes, when he’s with me he’s so different, he’s sane and normal, he listens to me, he asks me about my life, he doesn’t treat me like a scummy bandit and when he holds me…I actually feel safe knowing he’s there, that he can protect me,” she said.

“Sounds like love to me,” Angel said. “I don’t think I’ve ever known him to feel like that for someone.”

“Not even your own mother?”

“He probably did for mom a long time ago…but I don’t remember it,” Angel said.

 

* * *

 

After four hours of waiting and watching, the shields around the injectors finally disabled.

“Okay the shields are down are you ready?” she asked Angel as she placed her bag down by the shield that surrounded her and opened it. “When those injectors are all broken, grab the first shot from that bag and jab yourself with it as fast as you can.”

“How can you be so sure that this will work?” Angel asked.

“Do you trust me Angel?” Blaze asked her. Angel thought for a second and nodded.

“Yes,” she agreed. Blaze got out the Torgue Rifle and aimed at the first injector. She fired a shot and the first injector exploded.

“Alright one down two to go,” Blaze said as sudden rumble shook the ground around them. There was a loud explosion as the doors to the lift exploded open and Lilith and Roland entered heavily armed.

“Alright let’s find the- Blaze!” Roland exclaimed seeing her there. Lilith growled and ran at Blaze who spring boarded out of the way.

“You lying, evil, manipulative bitch, how long have you been sleeping with Jack?” Lilith shouted at her.

“How did you find out, I thought Mordecai’s story didn’t convince any of you?” Blaze said as she fired the rifle again and blew the second injector.

“Blaze hurry up, I don’t feel so good,” Angel said as she fell to her knees, she couldn’t get to the bag but she could feel herself weakening greatly.

“I bet he never even kidnapped you, you made it all up, planned for your car to explode so he could take you away and make you his fuck toy,” Lilith said as she tried to use a phase attack against Blaze. Blaze dodged and punched Lilith hard with her Eridium power sending her back several feet.

“He did capture me, but he let me go and I have a job to do and you’re screwing it up,” Blaze shouted at her as she aimed for the final injector. Lilith then ran at her and knocked the rifle from her hands towards Roland who picked it up.

“What is going on, what are you even doing here?” Roland said confused by her being there.

“Saving her life, now you need to hit that final injector so I can get her out of here,” Blaze called to Roland. Suddenly all the screen in the chamber lit up and Jack appeared on them.

“Angel, what is going on, Blaze, Roland!” Jack called out, his voice getting harsher at the sight of Roland.

“Oh good your boyfriend is here to defend you,” Lilith said as she tried to punch Blaze again. Blaze grabbed her fist to stop her and threw her across the chamber and to Roland. Blaze then spring boarded into the air and channelled her power into her fist to punch the injector. It damaged it a little but a second punch would destroy it.

“Blaze what are you doing that’s my daughter down there!” Jack cried out.

“I’m doing this for you,” Blaze shouted as she jumped again and gave the injector another Eridium fuelled punch. The injector broke and the shield around Angel vanished. Blaze landed on the ground and dashed towards Angel who started to reach for the bag.  
“Stop her!” Lilith shouted as Roland started to fire bullets. Blaze dived towards Angel and suddenly a purple wall of energy blew up around her as the bullets started ricochet off and fly around the room. A blur of pixels appeared as Jack appeared, standing between Lilith, Roland and Blaze.

“Blaze, what are you doing?” he shouted at her, Blaze pulled the bag onto her shoulder and stabbed Angel with the Eridium shot.

“Jack please, this is killing her, there has to be a better way,” Blaze said as she grabbed Angel tight.

“I have a better way, but without the injectors she’ll die, please Blaze, don’t take her away from me, she’s all I have,” Jack pleaded. She could see the desperation in his eyes and it hurt to look.

“I know what I’m doing,” Blaze told him as she grabbed another shot.

“Blaze please don’t, I love you!” Jack cried out. Roland gasped but those words infuriated Lilith.

“You betrayed us Blaze!” she shouted at her. Angel started to cough as Blaze stabbed her with another Eridium injection.

“I’m sorry Jack,” she said and teleported away with Angel. Jack felt the air get pulled out of him as he watched her vanish.

“NO!” he shouted, he then turned to Roland and Lilith. “YOU!” he shouted as Roland started to fire bullets at him. His shield absorbed the damage and broke as Lilith ran at him ready to attack him with her Siren powers. Quickly he teleported away and found himself at Eridium Blight. He breathed out and leaned against the crate that was next to him.

“RAAAAARRGGGGHHHH!” he yelled out.


	17. Return To Rotgut

Blaze landed outside the door of Jay’s house in the rainy and miserable Rotgut Distillery, she banged on the door trying to keep Angel steady.

“Jay open up, its Blaze,” Blaze shouted. She grabbed another shot and stabbed Angel again this time into her heart. “Come on kid stay with me, hold on.”

“Thank you Blaze,” Angel said exasperated. The door opened and she saw Jay.

“Oh God you actually have her, get inside now.” He said helped her in. “Get her on the couch, everything is set up, but I can’t believe you went through this, I thought your friends were talking nonsense until Moxxie showed up.” Blaze helped Angel to the sofa as Moxxie started to attach the IV to Angel.

“Don’t worry Sugar, you’ll be okay,” she said as she attached it to Angel’s arm.

“I feel funny,” Angel said.

“Where are my crew and Ellie and Scooter?” Blaze said as she looked around.

“They’re all posted around town keeping an eye out, what happened when you were getting Angel out?” Jay asked her.

“Roland and Lilith showed up, Lilith despises me now, somehow they found out that I slept with Jack and she tried to kill me, Roland just seemed confused by everything,” Blaze explained as she stroked Angel’s hair.

“You slept with Jack, oh you really are stupid,” Jay said.

“Oh like you’re any better,” Moxxie said to him. “Minus kidnapping you were literally in the same position as her once.”

“Can we not get into this in front of Angel?” Jay said to her.   
“How do you feel sweetie?” Moxxie asked Angel.

“I’m…I’m hungry,” she answered.

“Make yourself useful and get her some food,” Moxxie told Jay. Jay complied and left to go into the kitchen. Moxxie brought up her ECHO. “Tannis, she seems to be responding to the IV’s, how long do you think she needs to stay here?”

“A couple days at least, I can monitor the situation from here,” Tannis answered.

“Did I hear right, dad loves you?” Angel asked Blaze.

“I don’t know,” she replied. Did he say that to get her stop or did he actually love her? “I honestly don’t know if he does, probably not after this, and if you die, well he definitely won’t.”

“Jack doesn’t use that word, if he told you now, he probably meant it,” Moxxie said. Blaze sighed and helped Angel sit up, her arm around her shoulders for support.

“I can’t go back to Sanctuary, but I need to need to go back to the Southern Shelf, if whatever made me a Siren is there, I have to find it,” she said.

“I have the key, and it’s almost charged, Jack was boosting the Eridium to fuel it, it only needs another three days and it’s fully charged,” Angel told her.

“How do we charge it then?” Blaze asked her as Jay retuned with a sandwich for Angel.

“Eridium charges the key, just let me hold onto it and I can finish charging it,” she replied.

“You sure that’s wise kid?” Jay asked her as he handed her the plate.

“I’m sure, I’ve been charging it for several years now,” Angel said. Blaze let go of Angel, she could sit up by herself at least, and stood up.

“I need to make a call,” she said and went outside. 

* * *

 

Outside Blaze breathed in slowly and then out and tapped the image of Jack on her ECHO. There was a click and a connection.

“Jack,” she said. There was a long pause before he finally spoke.

“Tell me that she’s alright, she didn’t die,” he said to her.

“She’s pulling through, resilient, and hooked up to an IV of liquid Eridium, courtesy of Tannis,” she explained.

“So that’s what you did with my Eridium, why are you calling?” he asked her.

“I need to talk to you about that Vault in the Southern Shelf,” she said.

“You mean the waste of a trip and six Vault Hunters.”

“The very same, I’m sure Angel played you the audio recording from that day,” Blaze said.

“No, she played it for you?” he asked her.

“Yeah…we’re at the Rotgut Distillery, I’ll be waiting outside,” she said and hung up. She spotted her crew on the other side of the water sitting about on a dock, she waved to them and they all waved back. Slim and Stretch both gave her nods to gesture her to turn around and she saw Jay.

“Oh hey,” she said.

“Moxxie told me to check on you, how are you holding up?” he asked her.

“Oh I’ve been better, but I have a feeling Lilith will kill me the next time she sees me,” Blaze said.

“Eh, I never liked her, she’s kind of a bitch,” Jay said. Blaze sighed as she saw Jack teleport a few feet away from her. She smiled at the sight of him, he looked at her and slowly approached her.

“Hi,” she said wondering if he was even going to speak to her. He looked at her, then at his Double and winked at him.

“Hey sexy,” he said to Jay. Jay laughed and blushed slightly, looking away from him. “Hi Blaze,” he finally said to her.

“Are you mad at me?” she asked.

“Blaze I am feeling so many things for you right now, but before I can even address all that, I just want to see my daughter,” he told her. She nodded and stepped to the side.

“She’s inside with Moxxie,” she said. Jack walked past her and into the house, Blaze sighed and went to hug Jay.

“He hates me now doesn’t he,” she said. Jay said nothing and hugged her back, patting her head.

“I don’t think he does.”

* * *

 Jack walked into the house and towards the living room where he saw Angel sitting on the sofa holding the key, Moxxie sitting beside her. That was she was alive made his anxiety ease, and he walked forward.

“Hey sweetie,” he said. Angel looked up and gasped.

“Dad?” she asked. Jack nodded and kneeled before her. He looked at her, reached out to touch her face, and then moved to hug her, he hadn’t been able to hug her like this in a decade.

“I’m so sorry,” he said to her holding her tight. “I shouldn’t have put you in that stupid chair.”

“Blaze saved me, I think Lilith and Roland would have definitely killed me if she hadn’t been there,” Angel told him.

“They’re not going to hurt you, not while I’m here,” he told her, still holding on, afraid to let go of her in case she’d vanish or break.

“Blaze truly cares for you Jack,” Moxxie commented. This was the first time she’d ever seen Jack not acting like an egomaniac or even like a corporate stooge. “Did you mean what you said to her?”

“Mean what?” Jack asked her as he let go of Angel and stood up.

“That you love her, did you really mean it?” Moxxie asked him again. Jack nodded.

“I tried to tell her yesterday in Overlook,” he admitted. “I love her…I’m in love with a bandit.” Moxxie laughed and stood and placed her hand on his shoulder.

“I think she loves you too,” she said. She checked on the IV bag which was three-quarters full. “I have to put in a call to Tannis.” She walked into the kitchen and Jack sat down beside Angel and stroked her hair.

“God, you look so much like your mother now, she even shaved her hair in the same style she used to get little wave designs on the side and dye it blue,” he said to her.

“Do you miss her?” Angel asked.

“Every damn day.” He gently pulled her into another hug, taking the Vault Key from her and putting it on the arm of the sofa. And for the first time in ten years, Jack actually started to cry.


End file.
